


A Case of the Heart and Mind

by YaBoyTwoHats



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Angst, But Sort of Not, Case Fic, Fake/Pretend Relationship, First Kiss, First Time, Fluff, M/M, Undercover, Undercover As Gay, Undercover as a Couple, somewhat slow burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-01
Updated: 2018-03-19
Packaged: 2019-01-07 12:46:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 22
Words: 26,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12233142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YaBoyTwoHats/pseuds/YaBoyTwoHats
Summary: Hotch has been in love with Reid for years, and now he's being told to go undercover with his love as the man's boyfriend for what could be a long time. This was going to be rough.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Dolly Parton once said, "If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain."

Spencer had walked into the BAU that morning with a cup of coffee and mussed "boy band" hair, as Hotch had called it. He, of course, had his gun and badge as well, but coffee was more important than credentials and a weapon. Spencer sat at his desk, only then realizing that nobody had spoken a word after he entered the office. He slowly turned around to look at his co-workers.

Morgan was busying himself texting, most likely with Garcia, whose head was buried in her own phone. JJ and Emily were whispering to each other in a corner. Rossi was acting like nothing was up, minding his own business and drinking his own coffee. But Hotch was acting strangest by far. The man looked jittery as if anything could set him off, but he was quite obviously trying- and failing- to control himself. He kept looking down at the file in his hands, looking up, blinking hard for a good five seconds, and repeating the cycle. Nobody was addressing how odd they, and their co-workers, looked and were acting, so Spencer decided to.

"All of you are acting quite peculiarly right now. Why is that?" Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at him. Derek was the first to respond.

"Well, Pretty Boy, a case came up... It may be a little awkward for you," Morgan supplied, sitting down immediately afterward. The information wasn't the most helpful, and certainly not as helpful as the information he normally got was.

"We get cases all the time, and about seventy-eight percent of them are awkward. I mean, remember the one case where the Unsub glued his victim's eyes open?" Everyone except for Rossi nodded- who could forget the Tommy Killer?

"Kid, you don't understand why this case is awkward, not yet," Rossi added before going to get more coffee. However, the addition was not nearly as helpful as Reid hoped it would have been.

"Sorry, Junior G-Man, it's up to them to tell you the delicious details. I'm the technical analyst, not the de-briefer." Penelope left, probably to visit her lair, and then Emily, JJ, and Hotchner were the three people left, two whispering, one doing some very quick-thinking.

"Emily? Please? Is something wrong?"

"No, Spencer. It's just weird," Emily replied before patting JJ on the back as a term of endearment- a silent "good luck"- and leaving herself.  
JJ and Hotch. Who would crack first?

"I think," JJ started, closing her mouth almost immediately after the second word. "I think Hotch should tell you. Yeah, the case was run by me first, but it involves him more than me."

Hotch glared at JJ, and Spencer smiled. At least Hotch was acting more normal; glaring at everyone and thing. Finally, the man sighed and focused on him.  
Hotch's body stood at attention, arms and legs completely straight as the Unit Chief prepared to address his employee. Something broke slightly, and Hotch's posture became less rigid, more flowy and open.

"I'll tell you, but in private, Reid. My office," the man murmured before starting towards the office himself. Spencer quickly followed.

"What is our case?" Spencer asked as soon as the door closed. Hotch's normally nearly emotionless eyes were filled with fear, nervousness, and... Joy?

"We're going to Coeur D’Alene, Idaho for a case. Our Unsub- informally known as the "Rainbow Killer"- kills their victims, submerges them in water, and then somehow is able to   
leave their victims out in the open to be found without having any way to find the killer." Though the briefing was detailed, Spencer knew Hotch was keeping something from him.

"Your facial expressions may be normal, but that red-pink tint on your nose, cheeks, and ears shows me that you aren't telling me something, Sir." Lying was not something Reid took well to. Even if it was more withholding information than truly lying.

"The people murdered were couples, the majority of them male and male... And this case is going to require you going undercover." Now Spencer understood why Hotch had been acting strange, as had everyone else.

"Oh... but Morgan sounded almost dismissive when he spoke. Why wouldn't he just tell me I'd have to fake a relationship with him then? He's pretty blunt," Spencer said, trailing off slightly.

A coughing noise came from Hotch before the man spoke up again.

His face flushed before he said, "Morgan can't go undercover for this... Nobody killed was a person of color, meaning that though we don't know the killer's gender yet, we do know that they're after white people. Specifically gay couples, or people that seem to be a gay couple. And Dave- well, he's old enough to be your father, so, Reid, before JJ had even shown me the case she knew that I had to be the one going undercover with you. She told me and I immediately understood her reasoning. I know things will be awkward, but if you'd rather I could get Dave to-"

"NO," Reid practically shouted. He assessed what he should say and in a matter of seconds, Spencer was speaking again, calmly this time. "I mean, that would not only be rude towards you, but it would be awkward for both Rossi and me, so I'd rather just stick with the option I've been started with," he added.

Hotch nodded.

"You got here later than everyone else, so I will quickly debrief you now." Spencer smiled at Hotch, and it had the effect he was hoping for. The tight, tension-filled shoulders on his boss relaxed slightly before he continued. "You're Spencer Sigma Dandridge, born to Lisa and Alex Dandridge in Pittsburgh, on your same birthday. Your mom is an author with a fascination for Doctor Who and all things Greek, and father a gambler who had millions until he lost a game of poker a few weeks ago. You went to a popular, yet cheap, diner afterward, and met me after we had to sit together at the bar. I immediately was interested in you, because of your intelligence, your style, and your shyness. I invited you to a movie date to see Megamind in theaters. After a few dates, it escalated to us being boyfriends. Because I'm nice, I was moving to Coeur D’Alene from Spokane, Washington, and we were moving fast anyway, the seventh date led to me asking you to move in with me." Hotch looked at the younger man quizzically and immediately found that Spencer was trying to profile him. "No inter-team profiling, Spencer. It's inappropriate."

Spencer blushed and grinned sheepishly.

"Thanks for making my middle name the second part of the name the Doctor went by at The Academy on Gallifrey," he whispered.

"Garcia suggested it." She didn't. "I'm Aaron Percy Ligman, born in Heber City, Utah and raised by my mom and grandfather in Kansas City in Kansas. Father died young, grandmother murdered. I'm trying to become a police officer, but I put that dream on pause when I met you. We first kissed after I drove you home from that movie theater date, and though we didn't do anything sexual, you insisted I stay over. After having my arms around you whiles sleeping, I knew I would rather die than live in a world without our future somewhere in it." Hotch finished surprisingly slowly, and the kind sentiment made Spencer feel tears in his eyes... Then he remembered.  
He didn't like Hotch that way, but the thought of someone caring for him like that, if he trusted them, male or female, he would probably love them. Of course, starting when they left the FBI offices, every word of love and caring would be a lie.  
"Spencer, are you okay? If you need, you can go with Dave, or I can go with Dave and you can stay at the group house the rest of the team will be in. Rossi wouldn't-"

"I'm fine, Aaron."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Just FYI, events of 100 take place normally around Nov 17, 2009, but instead they're going to take place on Feb 10, 2010, because reasons.

Aaron's usually stoic facade was crashing down around him, and all because of Spencer Reid. The cool smile he gave him made Hotch relax and nearly smile himself. Though the younger man did not seem excited to hear that he had to pretend to date his boss, he was not as opposed to the idea as Hotch thought he would be.

If Hotch was honest, he'd wanted to hug Spencer tight in his arms after he smiled at him. Wanted to give him soft kisses before they went to sleep. Wanted to be Spencer's one and only for so, so long. It was probably during the LDSK case in '05 that he'd realized that he was attracted to the man. How he'd understood Hotch's plan from the moment when he had the Unsub move the hostages, he would never know.

"I know you're not okay, but I won't persist the matter as long as you speak to someone about what's wrong." Spencer's head bowed for a moment before slowly pointing it up again. 

"Good," Aaron mused, and he left even though he more than anything wanted to comfort Spencer.  
The BAU was entirely silent once more, all eyes on Hotch this time instead of Reid.

"He's alright with it, meaning we'll need to leave tomorrow. JJ, set up a kinda nice looking place for Reid and me to stay in, Garcia, find any job opportunities near there that Reid and I would most certainly get, and a car dealership near the home JJ's finding," wheezed Hotch, who was honestly a tad bit out of breath from all of the talking and how nervous he was.

"On it, sir."

"You got it, Bossman."

That left Morgan, Rossi, and Emily for bossing around- kinda.

"Morgan, do me a favor and get Reid to calm down in the debrief room- we need him to pack some of his valuables as soon as possible, so the house looks like home. Rossi, you mind helping Reid and I take fake relationship pictures to put in our place in Idaho?" The elder of the three men shook his head.

"I'd love to help with that, Hotch," Rossi said slightly sickeningly. Rossi was the only person in the BAU that knew that Hotch was in love with Reid and that he had been for a long time or at least a long time for someone not in a relationship with that person.

"Emily, check through the files again and see if you find anything we missed that could be useful, give me a call. Wheels up for the jet tomorrow people!"  
Emily nodded quickly and scurried to her cubicle, hoping she wouldn't waste their valuable time. After entering his office, Hotchner prepared to make the call he was not prepared to make. He dialed up Jessica's number and waited.

"Aaron, there you are! Jack asked me what you were doing and I couldn't tell him you were prepping to go undercover so you'll have to do it yourself. He'll understand if it comes from you."

Aaron nodded, and then to clarify that he agreed he muttered, "I hope so. Can you put Jack on the phone now?"

There was audible scuffling on the other line and then Jack yelled, “Dad," into the phone.

"Hey, buddy... I have some bad news for you..."

"Please don't say that you're leaving like mommy did. I need you, daddy," the boy whispered. At the moment he was neither scared nor sad, but though he hardly called Aaron daddy after he turned five, that all changed after Haley's murder.

"I'm not, buddy. I'll call every night, but I just have to leave. It's a case, and it requires me going undercover."

Jack giggled. "You're just like Captain America, daddy. I bet you could save anyone from anything!"

Not Haley.

"That's the dream."

His son laughed again but became somber nearly immediately, which was a quick transition for someone so young.

"Daddy," he whispered. "H-how long will you be away?" the boy asked. A sigh escaped Hotchner's lips.

"At least a month, unless we're found by the Unsub before then and at most three."

"You said 'we're'. Who going undercover with you?" Ignoring his son’s slight grammar slip-up, Aaron continued talking.

"Spen- Dr. Reid. I believe you have met him before. He's very brill-" Jack cut him off.

"One time I heard you scream his name from your room, and I went and checked but nobody was there, and you were asleep. Did you have a nightmare about him?" Were this anyone but his son, Aaron would have said that it definitely wasn't a nightmare because nightmares don't leave occur while awake, and that it wasn't because it was enjoyable. However, Aaron didn't want his son knowing about that stuff just yet and gave the boy a simple answer.

"I had a nightmare, yes."

"I'm sorry, daddy. Are you okay?"

Another unwanted sound, a scoff this time, escaped from his lips.

"I'm fine. Will you be fine with Aunt Jessie while I'm gone?" Jack responded with a "yes!" nearly immediately. "Good. Behave and make sure to what Auntie Jess asks of you. Love you, and I'll be home for dinner in three."

"Okay, love you, daddy," Jack yelled. Seconds later, he hung up on Hotch and started playing again while Hotch was trying to memorize the sound of his voice.  
Hotch groaned. Under any other circumstance, he would love to spend a month with Spencer, the man he had loved for years on end, as his boyfriend. Unfortunately, it had only been a month short of a year after Haley's passing. This meant that Hotch didn't know if Jack would be okay without either parent, especially since Haley's one year since death-day was coming rapidly.  
Aaron opened the gallery on his phone and immediately found a picture of his boy. He was in his 'superhero' Halloween costume, dressed as Hotch himself. The thought brought tears to his eyes. Then he went to the next photo. It was one of him and Spencer. Reid had taken the picture, and Aaron had intertwined his left hand with his right, trying to avoid his strong urge to grab the other man's empty hand. The result was a cute picture, but if you looked closely, you would notice that Hotch was trying to keep his poker face, and just barely not failing.

"I hope that he's okay with doing this..."


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> idk I dont do these often

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spencer is gayyyyy in this so any female conquests he's had before haven't happened k thx this has been a psa

Spencer was not okay with being Hotch's fake boyfriend. He had always thought the man was extremely attractive and, though Hotch was exactly his type and Reid had had a small crush (not that he would ever admit it, even to himself) on him for a while, he was not ready to go from their working friends and co-workers relationship! As he bit his nails, he thought suddenly about his mother. Diana wouldn't be getting any letters from Spencer until after they caught the Unsub. This made Reid feel exceedingly worse.

Just then, he heard Hotch's voice say his name. By the time Spencer looked over, Morgan entered the office. 

"You okay, kid?" Spencer shook his head and gave Derek a grimace. "What's wrong? You make goo-goo eyes at him once a week and you've never gone home with any girl to my knowledge. You obviously like him, and now you have a full month, or more, to be sweet with him and make him your actual boyfriend! I see no problems with that!"

Spencer spluttered for a second before chuckling.

"Oh yes, a relationship based on lies and tracking a serial killer would be a great one. And you may not have known this, but I don't go home with anyone because they're all much too drunk to consent to anything. Let alone the fact that Hotch is our boss and I don't like him that way," Spencer babbled naturally. Morgan raised an eyebrow at his arguments but stayed silent. Instead, he motioned to Hotch, who was immersed in a phone conversation with someone.

"He's talking to his kid. Haley only died a little less than a year ago, Pretty Boy. This is probably going to be harder on him," Morgan said. "Especially since Hotch hasn't been undercover since before Jack was born... The kid will have to stay with his aunt for at least a month and will be worried about his father's safety the entire time... That's really tough to think about, and I'm not even the kid's dad, Reid," Morgan finished quietly. Spencer silently agreed with him.

"I feel selfish," he murmured to his best friend.

"Don't. You haven't done this before and it was unexpected. You have a right to be a little upset and surprised, but any more than that would be selfish." 

Spencer looked at Hotch, who was staring at his phone and had a tear sliding down his face.

"After Haley's death, Jack was Hotch's lifeline. Other than Rossi, that is. And you of course. Anyway, being away from Jack is going to be hard on both he and Jack, so be careful around that subject..." Though hearing that Hotch would have a really hard time was tough, Spencer's heart swelled at the thought that he was one of the man's lifelines. "You doin' better, pretty boy?" Spencer nodded before telling Morgan he would talk to Hotch. "Good." 

Reid left the office and leaned against the wall. Hotch was still staring at his phone, so Spencer decided to text him rather than talk to him.

Spencer: You have been staring at your phone for nearly the entirety of my talk with Morgan. Come to your office so we can talk a little bit more.

Hot-ch: Will do. 

Spencer: Are you looking at a photo of Jack or Haley?

***

The first thing Aaron asked Spencer when they re-entered the office was, "How did you know?" 

"Hotch, we're profilers. Besides, it's coming up on the one year since date and I knew you knew and would be thinking about it." The tiniest of smiles appeared on Hotchner's face, and Spencer quickly returned it before it left.

"Are you feeling any better about doing this," he asked the younger man. Reid nodded. "Excellent. And you realize that we'll have to act under the pretense that we're always being watched... right?" The only reply Reid gave was a small and sad smile. Then the man's eyes went wide.

"D-does that mean we'll have to practice getting used to PDA with each-other?"

"I think so." Hotch reached out and took one of Spencer's hands in his. "Baby steps, though, Spencer." Spencer took Hotch's other hand in the one that wasn't already currently full.

"Okay. And, uh, what other types of PDA will we have to practice?" That earned Spencer an odd look.

"Probably kissing, why?"

"Remember when I said that kissing is more sanitary than shaking and/or holding hands? We still will gain germs even if we don't kiss often. Besides, we will have to practice." Both Aaron and Reid were hopeful that the other would suggest sooner practicing rather than later, but neither of the BAU members said anything about practicing early, so they decided to wait until they finished landing in Coeur d’Alene to practice.

"We still should though, as you don't enjoy physical contact much and you need to not flinch every time I lean in towards you for a kiss." Spencer flinched and then blushed red scarlet.

"I have an issue then," Spencer reluctantly admitted. Hotch quirked an eyebrow, silently asking the question Spencer didn't want to answer. "I've never kissed anyone before... Too young in school and, well, I'm not exactly desirable now am I?" The man next to him shook his head, and Spencer interpreted it to mean that he wasn't desirable, that this smart, gorgeous man was agreeing with him. Hotch widened his eyes and almost violently shook his head once more.

"That's not what I mean, Reid. You have a beautiful face and body. However, if your 'conquests,'" Hotch remarked in quotation marks," Do not understand that your mind is the most beautiful part of you, you shouldn't want to be with them." Spencer would be lying if he said he didn't notice that Hotch refrained from using any male or female pronouns during the speech about so-called 'internal beauty'.

"Hotch, how can you be okay with this? I'm a twenty-nine-year-old virgin- hell I haven't so much as held hands with anyone before! You've been married and you're pretty much the definition of metrosexual! And you're just okay with being with a completely inexperienced and ugly guy for a month or three? I mean, I know I'll catch on fast, but how is this even goin-" Hotchner cut off the rambling genius.

"Spencer, listen to me. In high school, you were twelve and thirteen, meaning everyone at that school would be afraid of taking advantage of you. Besides, you probably hadn't even reached puberty until college. When you did, everyone saw it but nobody at college was under-age, and they would've been arrested for child molestation! And after you came of age and everyone saw how brilliant and beautiful you were and are, they were probably just scared that, because you were both a genius and a gorgeous man, you already had someone." Spencer blushed ferociously and grinned happily at Hotch, who, after a second, continued.

"As for me; yes I've been married, and I did love Haley, but after Jack was born, we stopped the romantic part of our marriage. It was all about Jack having two parents..." Hotch took a short breath before putting his phone back in his pocket. "And for your information, I have never formally told any of the team that I am straight." The man took the liberty of grabbing Spencer's hand in his own and kissing his cheek before smiling ever so slightly and leaving for the bathroom.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry i've been inactive oops

The Unit Chief had relieved himself and washed his hands before anyone saw him again. Hotch exited the restroom, trying to keep his giddy face as close to stoic as possible. Everyone excluding Rossi was immersed in whatever task Hotch had given them. Dave was leaning casually against the wall, and he smirked when he saw Aaron. Blushing, Hotch walked towards the man and whispered to him.

"You ready, Dave?" The man barked out a laugh before getting a serious expression on his face.

"Are you ready?" Hotch grimaced at the other and a whispered "No" left his lips. Dave patted the man on the shoulder. "Let's go get those pictures done, huh," Rossi asked. Hotch nodded and the two of them entered the briefing room. The Italian man cleared his throat before muttering, "I'll get Reid," and leaving the room with the door open.

One minute later, Rossi returned with the young genius in tow. He pulled out his phone and typed something up before putting it away. Aaron gave Rossi a quizzical look, but his only response was a smirk. Not ten seconds later, a woman with bright and curly blonde hair and pink glasses burst in.

"What did I miss," she asked her teammates.

Rossi groaned. He gruffly told her, "Nothing, Penelope. Chill." Garcia nodded with a smile that turned into a smirk.

"Good. Couldn't miss my Honey and Junior G-Man gettin' it on." Aaron and Spencer looked at the other, Aaron silently asking, "Junior G-Man?" and Spencer silently asking, "Honey?" That caused a laugh from Rossi and Garcia. "Just kidding, babies. You're like TV characters, I know and love you but you can't be influenced by anything I yell at you after you do something you shouldn't have." Nobody said or did anything. Finally, Garcia groaned and said in a stoic voice, "I'm your Tech Analyst and so I'm going to be making sure the pictures are taken correctly. Besides, finding a car dealership and jobs for you and the genius was a piece of cake... F-Y-I, Hotch, your undercover character is a decedent of the Forbes family through your step-dad. That meaning, you are pretty filthy rich, so you won't have a real job. Since you can play the guitar, you write songs and sometimes perform them at bars." Hotch nodded in understanding and turned to Rossi.

"You got any good camera, Dave?" Rossi shook his head. Garcia giggled. 

"Hotch, I know a place with a great green screen we can use, and the people that work there are so sweet. It's called Kitty's Photography, owned by a girl named Kitty and her dads. Please?" It was Aaron's turn to groan now. The fewer people they could be compromised by, the better. 

"Fine," Aaron grumbled. "But Reid and I will need a few minutes to get stuff out of our Go-Bags and change..." Reid gave Hotchner an incredulous look.

"Sir, it is highly improbable that the Unsub is here, and even if they are they'd recognize us by face." Hotch grimaced, but only because he knew Spencer was right. "Besides, we can say we were visiting if anyone in Seattle asks us. I suggest that if we need to change our appearance, we do so by shedding our suit jackets, ties, and for me, my sweater vest," Reid ended up blathering.

"Alright... but we still need to be careful." 

Aaron took off his tailored coat and had started undoing his tie when he noticed how Spencer was acting. The man was looking up and to the sides. He licked his lips during the three-second period while looking at his boss, and blinked rapidly when he realized that Hotch had seen him. Hotch continued to undo his tie and tried to pretend that that scene had never happened.

"Wheels up. We drive in my car." Everyone nodded at Hotch.

The group walked out of the room and Rossi quickly announced, "We're going to Kitty's Photography, and we'll be as quick as we can." JJ and Prentiss waved from Prentiss's desk, of which JJ was sitting on top of, but Morgan responded with words.

"Be careful, everyone. Especially you, Baby Girl," he replied. Garcia giggled again.

"Always do, Hot Chocolate." With one last wave, they were off.

***

The procedure was simple. Kitty, their young photographer, was amazing; Reid and Garcia praised her after nearly every photo. A few were screwed up, but that was because of either Reid or Hotch's stupidity; or at least, that was what Dave and Garcia had told the young woman when a photo was ruined because someone had blinked. Many of the photos had backgrounds of plane interiors or office buildings, as they were "settling down in Coeur D’Alene after a few weeks of traveling and searching for good tutoring jobs for Spencer in Idaho," Garcia had informed them.

"These look so real," Spencer had breathed in Hotch's ear. The voice, though not meaning to, was incredibly seductive to Hotch and the older man had to step away from the younger one just to cool down. 

"Yes. Thank you Ms. L. I appreciate your time and your expertise in making these photos." Kitty grinned.

"Your boyfriend is lucky to have someone like you, Mr. Aaron." Spencer and Aaron blushed at this, then noticed the other was blushing, blushed harder, and looked away. "And you don't need to use formalities, sir. I allow all of my customers to call me by my name. I'm only eighteen, so being called Miss makes me feel old," she added politely.

"Thank you for everything you've helped us with," Spencer continued in a near monotone. He was happy with how well the ordeal had gone, but he also needed to send something to his mother before he couldn't. "I think we need to go now, though," he said, throwing a meaningful look to Penelope.

"Yes, yes we do. Thanks so much Kit Kat, keep in touch," she said before pulling the laughing and smirking Rossi and annoyed Hotch out of the small building.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel bad abt being inactive so I'm gonna post up to chapter 10 today

Hotch had left soon after he, Dave, Garcia, and Spencer had shown JJ, Morgan, and Prentiss the photographs. They were nice, but the three agents gaped at them and broke into laughter all the same. He hadn't paid much attention during the photo shoot, hadn't even noticed when Reid's soft hand took his, or when Spencer had pulled his boss into a tight hug. Thankfully, the hand holding was not visible in the picture, or else they would have been laughed at even more.

***

"Daddy," Jack had bellowed when he heard a key slide in the front door's lock. He scuttled out of his Aunt Jessie's lap and sat down in front of the door, but far away from it enough to ensure he would not be hit by it or stepped on. When the door opened not five seconds later, he jumped up and nearly ricocheted off the ceiling into his father's arms.

"Hi buddy, how are you doing," his father said as a greeting. Jack laughed and clung to Hotchner's chest.

"It was great, daddy! We wet to the zoo and I saw a rat!" Jack, being a young boy of about six, had not mastered the use of the letter N. Jessica came in at the moment he said rat and shook her head. For some reason, the boy had an obsession with what most thought was one of the most disgusting creatures in the living world. Jack was not part of most, which was unfortunate for Jessica, who was.

"That's interesting, Jack. Did you learn anything today?" The smallest of the three nodded his head vigorously.

"Yeah! Did you ‘ow that the Black Rat's scientific name is Rattus Rattus? It's basically just Rat Rat! Silly, right?" Hotch did have to stifle a laugh, but only partially because of what Jack had said. The way Jack had presented the information had reminded him so much of Reid, it was laughable. However, he pushed the thoughts of his male co-worker away, and carefully lowered Jack back down onto his feet.

"Jessie gave me dinosaur shaped chicken for lunch! They were really good and I even had Aunt Jessie try one and she agreed that it was yummy! We should make some for dinner, dad," the boy offered. Aaron shook his head. 

"I was thinking we could give Auntie the night off and go to that one restaurant she hates for breakfast for dinner..."

"CRACKER BARREL? Yes! Thank you, daddy," the boy screeched. Jessica gave Hotch a look that said: "that's my cue" and "thank you" before hugging him. After the hug ended, she moved over to Jack and kissed the top of his head.

"Good luck," Jessica called to Aaron from the front door. Hotch gave her a thumbs up and she shut the polished oak-wood door quickly and quietly.

***

Less than fifteen minutes later, Jack and Hotch were being seated at Cracker Barrel, and Jack had noticed a friend.

"Look," Jack whispered. "It's your friend! Look," he added, pointing at a young man scribbling furiously at another table. Looking up, Aaron saw that it was Spencer Reid sitting all by his lonesome that Jack had noticed. "I'm going to ask him to sit with us," Hotch's stubborn son pronounced. Before Hotch could do anything to stop his child, he had marched over to Spencer's table and greeted the genius. He spluttered for a moment before giving Jack a wide, but fake (Aaron *knows* Spencer) smile. Then, Spencer waved down a waiter and asked if he could move tables, and with one nod Spencer had picked up his pen and paper and plopped down in the chair next to Hotch.

"Fancy seeing you here, sir," he quipped. Hotch scoffed.

"There's no need to call me sir, Spencer. I'm Aaron to you when we’re not at work." Spencer nodded. 

"Have either of you ordered yet," questioned Spencer. The other two shook their heads.

"I haven't either. Completely missed the waitress asking me at one point; too immersed in my writing." Jack laughed for what felt like the millionth time since Hotch had arrived home.

"What were you writing, Spesser? Was it a story about rats?" 

"No, but did you know that the black rat's scientific name is-"

"Rattus Rattus," Hotch interjected, smiling at his son and Spencer. "It's funny because that means a black rat could also be called Rat Rat," he finished. Spencer was surprised.

"Told him that earlier," Jack stated proudly. Aaron reached over the table and ruffled his son's hair. "A ‘ways, what were you writing, Spesser? Don’t be afraid to tell me! I keep secrets well."

Laughing, Spencer responded with, “Well, at the BAU, it's not really a secret either, so I guess I can let you know... I write and send my mother a letter every day, but because we're going undercover, I can't do that anymore. I really don't want her to be alone, or to think I'm not okay, so I'm going to address these all to her doctor and tell them to give her one letter each day until I get a chance to call them and tell them they can stop because I can actually write her letters again. I'm through with the first month and a half, so just another month and a half worth of letters to go."

Hotch wasn't going to lie to himself; that might have been one of the saddest things he'd ever heard, and he worked in the FBI! With his father abusing him and his mother having died, Hotch's only living family was Sean, Jessica, and Jack, although the former was estranged from him and so he saw his family every day... He couldn't imagine having his one lifeline between them cut, and yet, Spencer was dealing with it.

"I'm proud of you, Spencer," he murmured in the other's ear, as to make sure Jack wouldn't hear it. It was the only thing he could think of telling the man. He wasn't going to say "I'm sorry" or "Oh well", and even if he did it wouldn't change anything. The words Aaron chose to say, did. The genius blushed but his posture straightened and he seemed calmer, happier.

"Thanks," Spencer breathed back. Jack was about to say something about the short, noticeable, and inexplicably important exchange (though none of them knew it) when the waiter came and they had to order.


	6. Chapter 6

The rest of dinner was enjoyable. Spencer finished the rest of his letters in ten minutes, so he got to chat with the boss and his son for five minutes until their food arrived. Jack got the Momma's French Toast Breakfast, Aaron got the Grandpa's Country Fried Breakfast, and Spencer, who decided to, like the others, get breakfast for dinner, got the Old Timer's Breakfast. Everyone loved their meal, and Jack asked the waiter to inform the cook of how phenomenal the food was when he arrived with the bill. Hotch paid all of it.

"Thanks," Spencer said to Hotch as he dropped him off. "It would've been a pain to wait the forty-six minutes that it would take for the bus to arrive. And thank you for paying for my meal." Hotch grinned at the man, who looked surprised, as Aaron hardly smiled at all at work.

"It was no problem," Aaron told him. Jack waved at Spencer, who quickly waved back before smiling at the father and son and turning away and walking over to the stairs that led to his apartment.

"Bye Spesser," called Jack from the car. Hotch laughed at his son's silliness and arrived home in no more than five minutes. 

"Go get ready for bed," he half suggested half ordered his son to do. "I need to pack for the case."

"Okay daddy," he shouted to his father after dropping off his leftovers on the counter. Aaron placed the leftovers into the fridge and sighed. His posture slackened and Hotch loosened his tie and took it off. Afterwards, he traipsed over to his room to pack. The door was half-open already, and he pushed it the rest of the way before entering and switching on the light. Ten minutes passed, and Aaron had ten collared shirts, ten t-shirts, three suit coats, three pairs of tailored pants, four pairs of shorts, four pairs of regular pants, underwear, socks, and five ties packed relatively neatly in a suitcase. 

"Dad; I'm finished getting ready! Come tuck me in!" Smiling, Hotch left the room with the door ajar and entered Jack's decorated room to tuck the boy in. "Can you read me a bedtime story, dad? Since you can't for a while after today?" Hotchner nodded and took a look at Jack's selection, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.”

"Alright," Hotch said grinning, taking the book from his boy and opening it to the first real page. "Chapter one- The Boy Who Lived. Mister and Misses Dursley of Number 4, Privet Drive were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much." Hotch read until Jack fell asleep, and when he did he dog-eared the page and set the beloved book down on his son's bedside table.  
"Love you, Jack," whispered Hotch. He kissed his son's forehead, stood up, and left the room to add a few more things to his suitcases, including his back-up copies of the Harry Potter series.

***  
At six-forty five, half an hour after when Hotch normally had to wake up, he rose from his slumber and felt much more well-rested. He packed up things that he couldn't until the last second, then visited Jack for the final time. It broke his heart that he wouldn't be able to see his son for a month at least, but he knew he could still call him as Jack's uncle, so that was something.

"Hey buddy," Hotch murmured to his lovely slumbering child. "I'm glad you're sleeping well, Jack. I see Harry Potter puts you to sleep very quickly," he persisted, casually placing his hand on his son's forehead and stroking it with his thumb. With a jolt, Jack awoke and put on a sad look.

"Please don't leave, daddy." 

Aaron felt a tear slide down his face as he muttered, "I have to, Jacks. I'm so sorry, baby. Try and get some more sleep, I'll be here until Jessie arrives." He stood up, intending to leave to give his son some more peaceful sleep, but Jack only whimpered.

"Stay with me, please," he cried. Who was he to deny his boy?

"Okay... May I pick you up and carry you to the couch so I can make some coffee quickly and maybe a waffle before I leave?" The child affirmed this option, and Aaron picked up Jack and swept him over to the couch.

He set down his coffee and his two Eggo waffles on the coffee table and smiled at Jack. The boy's tears had almost vanished from his face.

"Don't cry, buddy. I'll call you every day, and as many nights as possible, for long as you want each time. I'm going to work on something for you on the plane, okay? You're going to love it for those nights I can't call," Hotch whispered gently. Jack nodded and curled deep into his father's side. "I love you too, Jacks."

Hotchner had just taken his last full bite of waffle, as he had been giving the last piece of each doughy-creation to his whimpering boy when the doorbell rang and Jack started sobbing.

"Please, please no. Please, daddy, please don't leave," Jack pleaded, in tears. When Hotch didn't respond, he kicked and screamed and shouted for his mommy to come back and for his daddy to please, please stay. He did his best to ignore the emotional pain his son's sadness was causing him, but when he opened the door to Jessica he was silently crying himself. Jessica frowned sadly at the crying males and gave Aaron a hug before patting him on the shoulder and moving towards Jack.

"Go. Before he makes you hysterical too," she told him. He understood.

"I love you so much, Jacks. I will call you tonight and I'm sending your Auntie Jess a file for you as well," he said, more reassuring himself than Jack. "I love you," he told the boy for a final time, and he heard Jack cry out for him as Hotch shut the front door. Five minutes later, he was at the BAU after speeding; only narrowly avoiding a ticket.

"Hey," Dave addressed Hotch as he entered the jet. "You're a little late you know. Everyone else basically fell asleep, apart from Reid, waiting for you. What's up?"

"Nothing. Jessica was a little late, therefore I am late," he snapped. Hotch strode past him and sat down with Reid. Looking bewildered, Rossi mouthed a "Be careful" to Reid and set about waking himself up with another cup of coffee.

"You know, Aaron, you and Reid may be the only ones undercover, but we all have to stay in Coeur D’Alene too. JJ's leaving Will and her kid for this, and though Prentiss, Morgan, Garcia, and I may only have friends back home, we all had the option to let the Boise FBI unit watch over you two. Yet, here we are. I may rather be looking for wife number four, Prentiss may rather spend time with her mom, and Garcia and Morgan certainly would rather be on vacation, but we're all here with you two. Be nice."

Reid thought Rossi had completely disregarded his own statement of "Be careful," but did not comment on it, as they were all making a huge sacrifice for him and Hotch, and he needed that support right then.


	7. Chapter 7

The plane ride took a long time; it was nearing six hours when Aaron finally finished his self-made project, which made the rest of the team very relieved. He had been annoying everyone while working on it, as his reciting of books while in the back chair made it impossible for anyone to sleep. Each of them, excluding Spencer, had snapped once or twice, telling him to keep it down, and Hotch just ignored them. None of them had headphones in their carry-ons.

"Hey," Reid had whispered when Hotch finally finished. "Was that for Jack?" He nodded. "That's really sweet, you know. Kinda like what I did for my mom. I got up early today to get those letters mailed."

Aaron looked sheepish and he told Spencer, "I'm really impressed with you, you know, Reid." Spencer mirrored Hotch's expression, but looked down and stuck his fingers in his belt loops in pride and embarrassment.

"Thanks, Hotch. I needed that."

"Aaron, Spencer. Today's the day we go under, and Hotch isn't part of Aaron Ligman's name."

"Reid isn't part of mine," he chastised.

"I get your point, and I'll be careful to not- Wait! Garcia, what's Spencer's job in Idaho?"

Garcia jolted and looked at him before registering that he asked a question.

"Oh, it's, uh..." Penelope struggled for a moment; she couldn't remember. "He's a tutor for kids at some different high schools around the area. Used to be a librarian at a Spokane High School. He likes kids, but he also weirds the non-nerds out, and so he stays in the only place where everyone likes knowledge. Now he's a tutor so he can actually educate, rather than just be around books all day long."

Aaron smiled.

"That means I can call you Reid, but everyone will think it means read- since you're a bibliophile," Aaron said with a wicked smirk. Spencer curled up in a ball and looked away, trying to keep his flippant smile hidden from Hotch. Trying to purposely annoy the man, Hotch moved over to Spencer's seat and picked up the man easily.

"Hey!" Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at Spencer. He looked like a wet cat, and Aaron's smirk was still visible.

"You are too easy," Aaron criticized before putting the genius down on one of the two-seaters.

"Why can't I- oh," Spencer gasped. Hotch had placed Spencer on the outside seat, closest to the plane's tiny hallway, and wrapped an arm carefully around his waist; the hand that pulled Spencer closer was warm and gentle.

"Yeah," Hotch murmured. The hand he had on Spencer pulled him so close that there was not even an inch between the two of them. "Practice," he said.

"Practice," Spencer mirrored, taking Aaron's free hand just as gently.

Though his composure filled face void of emotion didn't inform anyone of it, Aaron was screaming on the inside. Maybe more like gasping for breath than screaming. He took a deep breath and paused. Like he himself had said, practice, right? Or was it? 

Before he could ponder the question any farther, Reid had retrieved his hand, with a mumbled, "Mine was getting sweaty," and JJ had told the team of seven that there were only about fifteen more minutes until they would land. As to ensure he wouldn't end up frozen in his position, Hotch got up and started cleaning up his crap. They endured a smooth landing, and before they got in the Boise FBI issued SUV, JJ stopped the two of them.

"As soon as you leave the FBI office, you are Aaron Ligman and Spencer Dandridge, alright? You live in a pre-furnished house but it's very nicely decorated. You go out at least twice a week to eat and go to a club every weekend. Make sure you do those things, or the Unsub may not find you." They nodded at her, and she shooed them inside the SUV.

***

"This place looks nice," Spencer commented, looking at his new surroundings, his new home.

"Yeah, phenomenal for the price," Aaron said, looking around in amazement. "But, it, unfortunately, has no food." Spencer groaned. "We get to go out, but then we have to go get groceries."

"Got it." Aaron led the two of them back to the waiting cab and told the driver to find the car dealership Garcia had told them about.

Before they left the Bureau, Garcia had told him and Spencer their records could only be accessed by FBI personnel. Along with information, Penelope gave them credit cards, ID's, driver's licenses; any form of identification, she had probably shoved in their hands. They had been driven back two the airport afterwards, then picked up by a cab driver who was none the wiser that they had already left once before.

"This is nice," Spencer hummed from Aaron's shoulder. "And thank you so, so, much for letting me live with you, babe." The name was unexpected, but Hotch took it in his stride.

"And what- leave you to where it takes a thirty minute drive for date night? Not a chance, Spencer. Your place didn't even have a bathroom, baby. You had to share one communal toilet with forty some odd people." Spencer smiled at Hotch and nuzzled into him more, cautiously grabbing the man's hand and stroking the palm of it with his thumb. "This is... good," Hotch mentioned. He mentally slapped himself for being nervous and was about to continue speaking when the driver spoke for the first time.

"This yo stop, folks," the man said, sounding moderately disgruntled, in a thick Southern accent. He and Spencer looked around the cab driver's car, trying to profile the man through their surroundings. 

"Yes, sir. Thank you so much," Reid told the guy, throwing him a hundred and a fifty dollar bill.

"Why thanks ya," he told the 'couple'. "I'm Bruce Erickson, E-R-I-C-K-S-O-N, on Scottstaxicda.com, so if I dids ya a good job then why don'ts ya send them some feedsback about me doin' well, huh." They nodded and left the cab, which sped off the moment they exited it.

"I should tell mom about that time," Reid said briskly, 'mom' meaning Garcia.

"That was really fun," Hotch agreed. They grasped hands again and entered the dealership. The procedure took thirty minutes or less, and Spencer got a new Subaru for ten thousand after a long argument with one of the salesman ended with Spencer getting socked in the eye. Of course, neither they nor the salesman wanted them to press charges, so Reid talked the dealership into giving them a car for cheap.

"Just have to keep making enemies, huh Reid?"

"He said that the car was like the Millennium Falcon but cooler, Aaron! Nothing is cooler than the Millennium Falcon! What was I supposed to do- agree," Spencer asked incredulously.

"No," he started cautiously. "But maybe you shouldn't have told him that he threw his life away and that this car is nothing like the Millennium Falcon, or called him dumb."

"He was," the other grumbled, and that was that. They started discussing where they would go for dinner.

"Zips. I went there for dinner with my brother when we visited."

"Isn't that a fast food place?"

"They have phenomenal tater tots though!" That was enough to sway Aaron, and Spencer started reciting the quickest way to reach their destination like he was a GPS.


	8. Chapter 8

After having Zips, where they each got a mound of tater tots, a burger, and a butterscotch milkshake, time seemed to fly by. They ate noisily in the parking lot. This was because, on the inside of the establishment, there were some quite literally crazy children running around. One of them had even blocked the doorway with his bike!

"It's better this way, anyway. We can talk normally, or not talk at all, which is what we seem to be doing," Spencer trailed off.

"Sorry," Aaron apologized, wiping a bit of grease off of his mouth. "I was really hungry. But we can talk at the store." Spencer dipped his head in approval and continued to dig in. Not five minutes later, they were off, in search of a good grocery store.

Aaron and Spencer found said store a mile or so away, and Spencer wanted nearly everything. Lucky Charms, coffee, ice cream, burger makings; he seemed only to be asking for the unhealthiest of choices.

"Come on, babe." Hotch ushered Spencer away from the sugary delights and forced him to pick some fruits to buy.

"Pineapple and watermelon." Aaron grabbed the fruits and tossed them casually into the cart. He also grabbed bananas and apples, as though they were not Reid's absolute favorite fruits, he did enjoy them the few times Hotch had seen him eating them. 

"Vegetables," Hotchner ordered briskly. Spencer was prepared this time, and thankfully had five different vegetable foods he was willing to eat; green beans, carrots, spinach, lettuce, and kale.

"Sugar again," Reid pleaded. They already had more garbage in the cart than they needed, so Aaron shook his head. Spencer looked glum.

Remembering his favorite foods, Spencer nearly shouted the words, "Oh my god!" Nearly ten people looked at them strangely, and Reid slapped himself for drawing attention to him and Hotch. "Sorry, it's just... Well, we forgot steak and rice, but I know that turns-"

Aaron cut him off.

"Steak and rice are two of my favorite foods, and we will be buying them anyway; that was always my intention. Do you have a final sugary request, honey, or can we go get the steaks now?" 

In a perfect world, Spencer would have shaken his head so that Aaron could lead him to the meat section, but instead, Reid told him, "Pumpkin pie. It's actually one of my favorite deserts- no, foods, despite the fact that I usually detest fruits, especially pumpkin. It's so messy." Hotch laughed.

"You're in luck, the season's just started." They grabbed their final items and made their way to the checkout aisle, the one they chose only being occupied by a nearly finished woman and her crying baby. The bill was substantially larger than either man had hoped for, but Aaron shook off his unpleasant, and rather disappointing, surprise and paid the almost a hundred-fifty dollar amount for their food.  
“Thank you for shopping at Safeway,” the glum man- Trent W, his nametag foretold- behind the register said in a monotone. For the most part, Aaron and Spencer ignored the cashier, though Spencer nodded his head appreciatively towards the man prior to grabbing Hotch’s hand.  
"You owe me. That like took twenty minutes because of you," Hotch said accusingly.

"Shush, babe. You love me too much."

They arrived at their house quickly and unloaded their goods. They unpacked and stripped into their boxers to go to bed. That was when Hotch stopped.

"Are you ready? I understand if you aren't, Spencer. I can sleep on the couch." With no reply, Aaron assumed that that was what Spencer wanted, and began to leave.

"No," Reid said suddenly. "It's fine. Us, sleeping in a bed together, I mean. And I am sure." 

So, the two climbed into the massive bed and fell asleep to the sound of the other's breathing. Neither had heard such a beautiful sound before, and they were enjoying it.

 

***

Hotch woke to the feeling of spooning someone, and instinctively assumed that it was Haley. Nobody else had been with him for years, and Haley was his first and only girlfriend (and wife) he had ever had. Of course, he realized this idea was nonsense when he, A, remembered the divorce, and, B, remembered that he was undercover as Spencer's boyfriend. Scrambling, Aaron got away from Spencer as quick as he could, as he felt something stirring in his boxers. He decided to get up and take a quick shower, but before he could throw off the blankets, Reid groaned.

"Why did you wake me up?"

"Unintended consequence of trying to get up."

"Should have stayed in bed then. You may be, but I am not much of a morning person, Aaron." Aaron just grinned and went to take his shower.

***

After the two men showered and dressed, they discussed their plans for the day.

"I suggest brunch out, preferably at a place with a bar counter so we can meet some people. That way," Aaron said, "We can get input from locals as to the most crowded bars." Spencer nodded and checked the time.

"Eleven AM is an acceptable time for brunch, correct?" 

"I believe so, Spencer." Spencer moaned in appreciation and grabbed Aaron's hand, nearly dragging him to the car.

"I'm starving," he told him.

"I can tell," Aaron chuckled, turning the car on before driving away from their new home.

***

They ended up going to a nice diner and sitting next to a very chatty young couple. The boyfriend- Sean Angleson- was studying to be a doctor, and the girlfriend- Airi Dawkin- was studying to work at NASA.

Spencer and Airi especially hit it off, and when he finally found a time to ask about clubs, he was not disappointed.

"Oh, there's this cool place here called Mik's- super popular, ya know. Cheap drinks, nice staff, and pretty good music. I would go with Sean but it's more of a group place, ya know."

A smirk snuck onto Reid's face for a moment, but just as Aaron noticed it, it was gone.

"I just had the best idea," Spencer told the other three.

"Unlikely," Hotch said. "You have great ideas all of the time."

Ignoring Aaron, Spencer continued with, "We should go to Mik's tonight. The optimum group size is four point six, but as we aren't going to meet three-fifths of a person anytime soon, the closest size to the optimum would be a group of four. The four of us go together."

Airi and Sean agreed, and Aaron told him that he would do whatever Spencer wanted and kissed him on the cheek, making Spencer go red.

"This has been fun," Airi informed the men, pulling a pen out of her purse and scribbling something onto a napkin. "My number. Text when you decide when you think we should meet." The two pairs parted ways, Hotch and Reid walking away with their hands intertwined. Spencer smiled in spite of himself. He was going to enjoy this much more than anyone should.


	9. Chapter 9

Later that night, after Spencer and Aaron had had dinner, Spencer texted Airi and suggested that they go to the club at around eleven. She and Sean liked that time option and had agreed. 

Aaron was currently re-reading one of Dave's books while awaiting Penelope's call. She promised to call either he or Spencer once a day, and she had not called yet. Thankfully, it only took ten more minutes of waiting for Garcia to call him. 

"Hi Boss Man," Garcia greeted.

"How are you, Penny?" Everyone agreed to a specific name to be addressed as while on the phone with either Hotch or Reid, and Garcia had chosen Penny, though it was a little bit cliché and obvious. Unfortunately, as to make sure they wouldn’t screw up, Garcia had made the men promise to address the team by their fake names if they were on the phone with them and to stick to the name of the first person if multiple joined in on the conversation.

"Good. The team is too, Honey. How's Spencer?"

"We're good. Settling in has been difficult, but we've managed."

"When are you going out? The sooner the better. "

"Soon, maybe tonight. Okay, tonight."

"Great. I have some people that want to talk to you though. "

"Are you sure-"

"Aaron, were you trying to hide from me," Dave asked.

"Evidently I was unsuccessful."

"Poor you. I took the phone away from Garcia, and I’m in an empty office. Now, how's it going between you and the boy genius?" 

Aaron sighed. 

"Fine. I'm still not convinced he's okay, but I'll talk to him later."

"I need to ask you something, Aaron, and you will find it personal, maybe almost too personal. Say yes if you understand."

"Penny, I'm not stupid. Yes."

"Are you in love with Spencer?"

The question took Aaron off guard. He knew he had feelings for Spencer but was not sure if he would classify them as love. However, he had never had feelings this strong for Haley, and he had loved her.

"No," he lied, lied being the key word. The realization only partially calmed Hotch, for it also meant that he had gone in far too deep. He had fallen in love with Spencer Reid.

Dave cursed under his breath, evidently able to tell that Aaron had not been truthful with him. After gaining his composure, he told Aaron that Morgan was taking the phone.

"If you hurt Spencer," Morgan threatened, "You will not be alive long enough for the Unsub to even find you."

"I will be dead before I even dream of doing that." Hotch's response, though unexpected, was genuine, and so Morgan handed the phone back to Garcia. 

"Had enough of talking to us?"

"I wish you all were here, Penny, so not really."

"Well sorry then sir, because I believe I have to hang up. New murder. It was a white gay couple, mid-thirties, stabbed twenty and thirty times, but the blood's been cleaned by water. Emily says they submerged the victims again. It's terrible, really. Should be on the news soon."

"Alright. Thanks for the update. Spencer says hello."

"Oh, by the way," Penelope said, almost as if it was an afterthought, "We set up security cameras around the house before you first arrived, and they should be turning on later tonight. Give our genius love and hugs from me." Not a moment later, Garcia hung up. 

It was now ten thirty at night, and Aaron had thankfully heard the water in Spencer's shower turn off nearly five minutes previously.

"Hi," Spencer said suddenly, making his presence in the living room known. 

"Hello. You look good." Spencer truly did look good, probably more than good. He had black skinny jeans on along with a business-like yet sexy looking black button-down.

"Y-you too." The two men looked at each other, one gazing into the other's beautiful chocolate brown eyes. Reid then coughed, and Hotch felt as if he were about to speak once more.

"I think we should talk about what we plan on doing tonight," Hotch started, his eyes focused on Reid's nervous ones. 

"What are you suggesting,” Reid probed, not wanting to be the first of the two that brought up Aaron's idea aloud. 

"You know what I am suggesting, Spencer. Practice. Everything needs to look and feel natural to you; as if we believed we were born for the sole purpose of kissing each other." Spencer looked at Aaron strangely. "I know it sounds odd, but that's how I felt the first few hundred times I kissed Haley. It's only a semi-permanent situation, anyways." One look on his face told Hotch that Spencer reluctantly agreed. "If you're uncomfortable, Reid, that is different. We can take things as slow as you need. I can easily keep physical contact to a bare minimum..."

"No, really, it's fine." As he spoke, Reid tentatively placed a hand on the older man's cheek. He had never kissed anyone before asks was scared he wouldn't enjoy it. Aaron melted like butter into the genius's palm and leaned his forehead against Spencer's.

"Are you ready?" Their lips were mere centimeters apart.

The "yes" Spencer planned to say was stifled against his boss's lips. If Spencer had been warm before this was nothing remotely comparable; it felt like his entire body was engulfed in flames... But somehow he found that he was, in fact, enjoying kissing Aaron Hotchner. Everything stopped, time stopped for a moment, and Reid was unsure why he was afraid before. Hotch deepened the kiss and Spencer moaned into the man's mouth before he could stop himself. Grabbing Hotch's hand, Spencer steadied himself and slowly pulled away. 

"That was good," Reid told Hotch breathlessly, paraphrasing the words Aaron had said when they held hands in the car the previous night. 

"You may only be saying that because I am now your first kiss though, Spencer. I'm probably not terribly good, having only kissed one woman my entire life," he mused.

Spencer shrugged. 

"You probably had between one kiss every two days and three kisses every day, at least up until the year Jack was born. That means you'd kissed her between 3,102 and 18,615 times, which is a lot more than my measly one." The logic was sound, though Hotch thought eighteen thousand was a little much.

"Right again, genius."

"Blow it up," Reid responded, holding out his clenched hand for a fist-bump.

Hotch nudged Spencer's fist with his and smiled slightly before checking the time. 

"We should go," he told Spencer quietly. "It's 10:45." Nodding, Spencer grabbed the house and car keys and chucked them to Aaron, who caught them easily. 

"Phone, keys, wallet," Spencer checked. It was a ritual he used to do for his parents as to make sure they didn't leave anything of importance inside the house that they might need while out.

"We're good," Aaron said, holding the door open for Spencer and shutting it firmly after the younger profiler. Though neither man would admit it, their hearts were aflutter, their bodies were jittery, and they were both unbelievably happy that they would be spending so much time with one another. 

The chain of events that had taken place so far had all worked out in their favor, so what was to say that their luck hadn't run out?


	10. Chapter 10

The club was obscenely bright and obnoxiously loud for something open late at night. Sean and Airi were chatting quietly as they waited outside for the two men, who arrived five minutes after later than they had agreed to.

“I almost got us drinks without you,” Sean told the men, acting coy. Spencer feigned sadness at Sean’s remark and softly punched Aaron in the shoulder.

“I told you to drive faster, babe,” Spencer chided. Hotch rolled his eyes.

“You never gave me directions, Spencer.”

“Oops.” Spencer brushed off Hotch’s accusation and casually looked inside the establishment. “There’s a special on tequila shots tonight! We could each have about two shots and still not end up drunk in an hour.”

Airi smirked and yelled something that sounded quite similar to a battle cry before speaking.

“That takes all of the fun out of everything! Let’s get wasted!” The three men cheered and entered the crowded establishment. Sean went to get shots while the others found a table. Airi convinced the other two to join her at a table near the karaoke machine, and told them that they would be doing some sort of singing by the end of the night, whether together or separate.

“Shots,” Sean said, passing each person at the table a drink. Hotch downed his quickly, while Spencer sipped his like water. “C’mon, down it already!” Spencer grimaced and did so. He wasn’t so hot with alcohol and other logic-inhibiting drugs, or drugs at all, really. Aaron, remembering Tobias Hankel, patted Reid lovingly on the shoulder as a reminder of the thing he had said to the man multiple times over the past few days; “I am proud of you.”

The next hour and a half flew by quickly. Another round of shots was passed around, and soon everyone was drunk. Airi and Sean were slurring their words, but Spencer forced himself to calculate everything he wanted to say, and Aaron still had a fairly high alcohol tolerance from his lonely nights in his apartment after the divorce.

“Look, Hot- Aaron,” Spencer started to point out, only narrowly avoiding saying Hotch, which could have terribly compromised their entire operation. “The karaoke machine is open for use. From my observations, you have two minutes and forty-eight seconds until the next person decides to attempt singing. If you plan on obeying your order to sing, I suggest you do so now.”

“Yeah, keep talking dirty to me, baby,” Aaron said dryly, obviously annoyed that he had to actually sing. “I haven’t sung since high school.” He exchanged a wry smile with Sean, who seemed opposed to singing as well, and then was pushed out of his chair and onto the floor by Spencer. “Rude.” Spencer just pointed to the machine and started talking animatedly to Airi, as becoming an astronaut required quite a bit of skill in engineering, of which he had a Ph.D. in.

Hotch trudged sullenly over the brightly lit dance floor towards the karaoke machine. After sifting through the electronic records with his finger, he found that the only tracks on the machine were songs released three years previously, telling him that, unfortunately, he had to choose some sort of garbage pop love song. He slowly checked each songs’ lyrics and finally found one that he felt was most similar to his situation, but of course, drunk Aaron didn’t realize how stupid of him it was to do so.

Spencer looked up when he heard the sound of a Rhianna tune starting. He recognized this one; “Umbrella,” he had heard it once at a Starbucks while on a case. Though he had forced Hotch to sing, he still found it hilarious that his ‘boyfriend’ had chosen a Rhianna love song of every possible song on the machine. Hotch was too drunk to care that everyone in the joint was watching him, and hoped that he wouldn’t screw up the words.

He thankfully did not screw up the lyrics to the unfamiliar song and dedicated it to Spencer at the end, who rushed over to Hotch at the end of the song and embraced him quickly.

“You truly are a great singer,” Hotch was informed. “Twenty percent of people don’t have real control over their vocal muscles, thirty-five can’t match the pitch of their voice to the desired note, and five percent can’t even find a difference in pitches or two sounds! You, of course, are not part of any of those percentages.” Aaron blushed at Spencer’s words, but the tint to his cheeks was thankfully not visible in the current lighting.

“Your kindness is appreciated, babe.” Sean and Airi rushed over as well and congratulated him on winning the karaoke contest. “What,” he asked the couple. He had heard nothing of a karaoke contest before then.

“Yeah, you won,” Airi said. “Whoever gets the loudest applause before one AM wins a fifty-dollar gift card. It may not be cheap but the word spreads here and they end up making a ton of money on Fridays because of the contest, ya know.” Hotch nodded, and then the bar manager, Tyler Posts, walked up to him.

“Hey, you the guy that just sang,” Tyler questioned gruffly, his cross necklace swinging from his neck as he cracked it menacingly. Hotch nodded yet again and was then handed a fifty-dollar visa gift card that could be used anywhere.

“Thank you,” Spencer said jovially, tugging the card out of Hotch's hand and sticking it in his pocket. The bar manager looked ready to fight Reid, but Aaron assured the man that it was fine; his money was Spencer's and Spencer's was his as they were, after all, boyfriends. The manager groaned and left them in peace.

"I say we heading home, ya knows. Real late and all," Airi said, stumbling as she tried to fiddle with her purse. "Whoops-a-daisy." She fell, but as Sean had begun sobering up, he used his mediocre hand-eye coordination to catch his girlfriend, who giggled and pulled him into a kiss. 

"That's our cue," Spencer whispered, nodding his head to the glass door they had entered through two hours ago. "Goodnight, Airi, Sean. Get an Uber and be safe." The couple giggled, but Sean did pull out his phone to order an Uber. 

After being subjected to two hours of being around sweaty drunk idiots, and Sean and Airi, Aaron and Reid were truthfully exhausted. Hotch swung his arm over Reid's shoulders and pulled out his phone, as to call themselves an Uber as well. 

"That easily the most exuberant night I've had in a while," Spencer twittered. "I remember there was one night where we went out and I did trivia shots, but that was before he left." The man they spoke of was Gideon, but that was something only the team would know. 

"Honestly, the same can be said for me. I chaperoned my nephew at a birthday party or two, but that doesn't really compare to the excitement I felt tonight. Thank you, baby." Spencer grinned and gave Aaron a quick kiss on the cheek before pointing out that their ride had arrived.

Once they arrived at the apartment, they got ready for bed in silence, hoping they wouldn't be too hungover in the morning, though hoping would solve none of their problems. Though there was no benefit to being hungover, both men hoped that the benefit of waking up would be waking up curled around each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey so I'm writing a Reylo fic and I was wondering if any REylo shippers and writers here would beta it for me? I use Grammarly but that only helps with mistakes. Anyways, thanks for reading and sticking with this story even though I abandoned it for 2 months. Hopefully, six chapters in a day made it worthwhile


	11. Chapter 11

Reid and Hotch woke up mere hours later at three AM to the sound of ambulances rushing past their home.

“I wonder what that’s about,” Spencer said casually. Aaron decided to check the Coeur D’Alene news website on his phone and, sure enough, the headline told of a murder. After nearly reading through the entirety of the story, Aaron stopped scrolling.

”The male victim of the couple murdered outside their apartment complex and drenched in water post-mortem, which appeared to be a follow home, has not yet been identified, but the female has been identified as Airi Dawkin, a twenty-two-year-old from Oklahoma. The police urge anyone who saw Airi between the hours of seven PM and three AM to come forward,’” the online newspaper reported.

“It’s Airi and Sean. They were murdered by our Unsub,” said Aaron softly.

“Penelope needs to know.”

“I’m sure she already does,” Hotch said, but still he dialed the analyst’s number and decided to call her.

“Hotch, it’s three in the morning!”

“Penny, Spencer and I went to a bar last night with some people we met at a diner. Their names were Airi Dawkin and Sean Angleson. The Coeur D’Alene newspaper says they were just murdered. It was that serial killer we’ve heard about.” Lowering his voice, Hotch whispered, “It was the Unsub.”

The men could tell Penelope was scowling from her retort of, “Yeah, yeah, I got that. You and boy wonder are alright though?”

“Yes,” Spencer replied.

“Good. Okay, I’ll wake up the rest of the team. We got our security cameras up in your house right after the call ended, and we used street cameras and bar footage to watch over you last night, so we’ll identify anyone that could have known that Airi and Sean were there. Of course, with your singing pretty much everyone at that place saw them rush up to you after Spencer did, so everyone’s a suspect. Good job, by the way.”

“Thank you, Penny,” Hotch said quietly. He did appreciate her words, but at the moment there were much more important things to be focused on.

“Wait,” Spencer started, looking quite anxiously at the phone. “Does that mean you saw…?” He ended up trailing off, but everyone in the conversation knew what he was referring to.

“Hotch and Reid, sittin’ in a tree-“

“Penny,” Hotch warned, his voice cold and stern. Penelope ignored her boss, instead focusing on waking the other slumbering agents.

“WAKE UP!” When a few of her colleagues didn’t exit their rooms, Garcia pounded on their door until they got up to ask her what the hell her problem was. “We’ll update you in a few,” she told Hotch and Spencer, who hung up on her before whispering something to Hotch.

“The Unsub’s found us then.” It wasn’t a true question, though it was obvious that Spencer wanted some form of confirmation telling him that his inference was correct.

“We’ll be okay,” Aaron assured the younger profiler. Suddenly, Reid fisted his hand in the older man’s hair, crawled unceremoniously on top of him, and pulled Hotch into an intense and quite honestly consuming kiss. Spencer smelled like tequila and paper, as if he had donned the smell of a new book by shoving his nose in it. He moaned, and the noise was so loud that it could not be muffled by the other man’s lips. His next moan was muffled, for Spencer had taken Hotch’s open mouth as an opportunity and had slid his tongue inside it. The feeling was almost indescribable- it felt so god damn good though. After a moment of quick thinking, Hotch decided to indulge himself in what he considered to be a treat and sucked on Reid’s tongue. The man moaned in response and rutted his hips against Aaron’s. Hotch withdrew from Spencer’s mouth and panted loudly. He had not expected anything more than a public peck while undercover with the man he loved, and yet there they were, one laying on top of the other, panting after a long and exceedingly heated make-out session.

“I shouldn’t have done that,” Reid breathed out heavily, his voice laced with want- no, need- for Hotch. “You know, contrary to popular belief, I am actually a complete imbecile.” Hotch chuckled. “What are you laughing at- I just broke protocol! I mean, we are supposed to be couple-y, but only in public. The team can see this!”

“They can hear us too, and if they really think that a grumpy forty-year-old finally getting some true happiness in his life is terrible because it ‘broke protocol’ then they’re assholes. Well, except all of them, as nobody cares.” Reid looked dumbfounded. “You currently do look like an imbecile though,” Hotch told him as he pushed the man off of his nearly naked body.

“What are you doing- we can’t get up yet!” Aaron rolled his eyes.

“The regular police can’t know that we’re undercover agents, so how’s it going to look when the FBI’s IDed the male victim without even going to the scene? We go to the precinct and share our information, and then the FBI says that they know the murders are related to the Unsub’s and get our information for the second time.” Reid obviously understood the Unit Chief’s reasoning, as not a moment later, he sprang out of bed too. They each put on t-shirts rather than their usual business casual outfits, shared a stack of microwave waffles, and called a cab to take them to pick up their car. Soon they were at the club and Hotch was turning on the car.

“Why do you always get to drive,” Spencer whined coyly.

“Because I’ve been driving for much longer than you have, baby.”

“Actually, that isn’t necessarily true. I knew how to drive when I was fourteen, but the state wouldn’t legally allow me to because I was too young. Pain in the ass at college though.”

“Spencer I’m about ten years older than you- I was driving legally when you were six.”

“Fine,” Spencer said stubbornly.

They took a few turns and at one point it seemed Aaron had gotten them lost, but the profilers prevailed in the end and parked in the station’s parking lot twenty minutes after they had left their house. The questions the officers asked were not even as detailed as the ones the Bureau would ask random people that might have been in the area of the crime committed in their case.

“Who was the male victim,” a detective named Cierra Randall asked at one point.

“If you are positive that you found Airi’s boyfriend with her rather than some other man, then your male victim would be Sean Angleson,” Reid told her. “He was wearing black Nike shorts, a white tank top with a stain on the back of the left strap, and, last we saw him, his sweatshirt was tied around his waist.”

One of the officers sneered at Spencer, who could tell the man thought he was just showing off.

“With all of those details,” he said mockingly, “How do we know you and your boy-toy didn’t murder them, huh? These people,” he said, now addressing the entirety of the force present, “Are frauds! Either that shrimp had three lucky guesses, or he and his slut murdered the couple themselves.”

“Selwin,” a woman shrieked. “That’s enough, out!” The rude detective, apparently named Selwin, slouched away with an angry expression on his face.

“Or,” Hotch called after him just before he went into a bathroom, “He could have an eidetic memory.” Selwin slammed the door unappreciatively and Aaron smirked. Sometimes it was fun dealing with assholes like Selwin just for the reason that they were so easily beaten with actual reasoning.


	12. Chapter 12

The remainder of the questions were tame, but the Chief did think it best to keep Aaron and Spencer overnight, and Spencer thought, and knew, that that was complete bullshit. The fortunate thing was that, by Hotch’s request, they had been given a pot of steaming hot coffee. Spencer, who was more tired than Hotch by far, refused his favorite drink and decided to snuggle up in his Unit Chief’s lap and take a cat-nap. This was enjoyable for both of them.

“It’s funny, really, if you think about it,” Spencer mused quietly. “We’re being detained as possible suspects by people with a considerably lower rank than ours.”

“Keep your voice down,” Hotch laughed, but he was only half kidding. At some point, Spencer did fall asleep, and Aaron snaked his hands through Reid’s hair, careful not to pull hard enough to wake him. He fell asleep as well and woke up at six when his phone rang.

“Why’d you set an alarm,” Spencer asked deliriously, unaware that it was the phone’s ringer that had woken them up.

“Penny.”

“Oh.” Spencer sat up and Hotch emitted a sad little groan in response before answering the call, as to make sure Spencer didn’t notice that he was upset at their lack of physical contact.

“What do you have?”

“Well, we can definitely confirm that this is our Unsub, so that is a start. We found anyone that could have possibly known the four of you went out by checking security cameras, hacking phones, etcetera, and found that nobody in their contacts or in their contacts’ contacts was there, but there were about sixty people who entered and left that bar that gave you four dirty looks and have homophobic things posted on social media or have some tie to homophobia. We’ll keep you posted, but we can’t contact the police until six-thirty for information exchange.”

“The majority of the officers seem to be here now, Penny,” Spencer offered. “We went to the police station to give our information so they’d have stuff to ‘tell you.’ You can probably call now, they did request the FBI's help."

"Right. Thanks, wingus. You too, Boss man."

Spencer told her it was nothing and hung up. Seconds later, the receptionist's phone rang and Penelope's vote rang throughout the office. They exchanged information as promised, and the police informed her that they had two men that claimed to know the victims and to have seen them. In hushed voices, they admitted their concerns about one, or two, of the men being the murderer, but Garcia laughed it off. 

"This Unsub is majorly careful with literally everything they do. They ate not the type of person to insert themselves into the investigation, 'kay? So don't treat- what, Spencer and Aaron you said? Yeah, them. Don't treat them like suspects."

Spencer was quite impressed with Garcia's ability to act and how well she was doing at quickly improvising to help herself and her team. He made a mental note to praise her for it. 

The call ended sooner rather than later than they thought it would, so Spencer and Aaron were released from their cell and were questioned before being told they could leave if they wished. They quite obviously did, and they hopped into their car as quickly as they could. 

"We should get some food," Spencer suggested, pointing out an IHOP a few hundred yards ahead.

"Call Penny first," Aaron commanded, turning the steering wheel to get into the lane with the pancake house's entrance. 

The Techie answered after the first -briiiing- and eagerly gave Spencer the information he wanted. 

"We had about one hundred people, but after narrowing it down only to people that have lived here since or before the first killing, we got to seventy-nine. Three of them were out of town on one or more of the days the murders took place. Looked for similar murders too, turns out there were some five years ago in Las Angeles. Unfortunately, that only narrowed it down to fifty-eight people. Checking that many people for good alibis would cause an uproar, but we did find some alibis online for five of them. One guy was live on YouTube the whole day, one at a funeral, and three had birthdays and were celebrating by getting drunk. We have a list of the fifty-three people left. Sorry, we couldn't get any closer."

"It’s fine, Penny. Send it to Aaron as well, please."

"You got it, Reid. Garcia out."

Hotch finally parked after circling the lot for what felt like hours, and Reid seemed to race the older man inside. 

"They have a chocolate-chocolate chip waffle stack now! I haven't been here in years and it's great!"

"You and your pancakes, “Hotch mumbled.

"Don't you even think about insulting pancakes. Though they are most definitely far superior to waffles, half of America seems to agree with your ideal." Hotch did nothing. "It's kind of obvious- you wolfed down the microwave waffles earlier, you circled the parking lot for the entirety of my conversation with Penny; as if trying to convince yourself that your opinion mattered more to you than I do, and just then you mumbled something angrily about pancakes."

Hotch shrugged. 

"Waffles are better. You don't need to unlawfully profile me to know that outer that I know that."

And so began the bitter argument of waffles versus pancakes and, when they had gotten bored of that debate, the question of syrup and other assorted sweets on the bread products versus being piled high with assorted breakfast products, like eggs.

"Cross-examination," Reid nearly shouted, shooing away the waiter that was trying to ask them if their food was okay for the fourth time in ten minutes. "Do you realize that you are completely and utterly crazy?"

"Only for you, baby." Spencer could hear a voice in his head going "Awwwww," and tried to ignore it, but ended up going bright red and smiling his I-don't-want-to-smile-but-that-was-really-nice-and-I-can't -really-help-it smile.

Their debate ended then, because the food that had been ordered, waffles for Hotch and pancakes for Spencer, was getting cold, arms both agreed that pancakes and waffles were better warm than cold. 

On the rose back to their house, Spencer got a call, this time from Dave.

"Spencer," Dave questioned. 

"Yeah, dad, and Aaron. You're on speaker." Though Rossi had not particularly liked being called dad, the rest of the team agreed on the name, including Hotch, who only let it slide because he didn't have to call him that.

Rossi laughed. "That's not necessary, I just need to have a quick chat with you, Reid."

"Oh," he said, quickly tapping the speaker button to turn it off. "Okay then."

"Is it off?"

"Yes." Spencer got the feeling that he was either about to get the bad news that could hurt Aaron in some way, or that he was about to be threatened. 

It was the latter. "Garcia had to show us the footage from your house... I'm a little surprised you two did that when you knew we would have to watch, but I didn't call to judge. I called to tell you that if you hurt Aaron, I will strappa la testa," he said menacingly, only using a tone slightly n nicer than the one he used with serial killers. 

"I haven't even thought of doing that," Spencer said honestly, ignoring the fact that one of his superiors had threatened to rip his head off.

"Good. I should go, say hi to Aaron for me."

"Love you too, dad. Bye!"


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> i hope to be finished posting this soon im sorry

The day passed slowly, and they stayed in for the rest of the day. Pumpkin pie was eaten in silence for lunch along with chocolate milk. Spencer sat on Aaron’s lap while they watched television reruns and chatted absentmindedly.

“What are we,” Reid asked at one point. Aaron was wholeheartedly surprised by the question and failed to answer it.

“What do you want to be?” Reid pushed himself off of Hotch’s lap and stared at the older man while blinking repeatedly in a way that resembled a meme Jack had showed him months ago.

“I thought that was obvious,” Spencer said, placing his hand on the inside of Hotch’s thigh. “I want to be yours and I want you to be mine. I want us to be us.”

“Doctor Spencer Walter Reid, I love you and you appear to have some form of feelings towards me. Would you do me the honor of being my boyfriend?” He could almost feel Rossi’s eyes boring onto them, but Hotch didn’t truly care. At that moment, not even the Unsub mattered.

“God, yes.” This time Hotch initiated the kiss, and he pulled Spencer onto his lap as he worked his tongue into the other man’s mouth. They lazily fought for dominance, but both agreed that this was more passionate than truly fighting at the moment. Breaking apart for only a moment, Aaron whispered, “Bedroom,” and got vigorous nodding from Reid as his answer. He carefully latched his hands onto Spencer’s thighs and stood up, still holding and kissing Spencer as he walked cautiously to the room they had only been sharing for a few days.

Spencer almost jumped off of Hotch and into the bed, scrambling to tear off his shirt before working on his pants.

“Patience, Spencer.” He swore Reid growled at him after his words, and quickly apologize to redact the apparently offensive statement. Hotch pulled off his shirt as well and was about to grab Spencer again when he remembered that there were cameras in the room. “Stop. I need to do something.” He took off his socks and motioned for Reid to hand him his as well. The genius obliged quickly, and Hotch found the three not-so-well-hidden cameras and put the socks haphazardly over the lens. “That’s better.” He dove at his new boyfriend and started pulling off his belt as well, not being able to wait to finally feel the love of his life.

Alas, their luck had come short, and Spencer’s phone started to buzz.

“Fuck it,” Spencer said, lips attaching themselves to Aaron’s neck. Aaron moaned, but it was drowned out by the sound of the phone ringing again, somehow even louder the second time. Hotch looked at the phone with raised eyebrows, but his head was forced back to facing his lover quite quickly. “I said fuck it, remember.” The phone stopped ringing, and Hotch began working on his belt. It was off and his pants were down to his knees before the phone rang yet again.

”Son of a bitch,” Spencer screamed, finally succumbing to the ringing and answering the phone. “Hi, this is Spencer Ligman. I actually can come to the phone right now, with a special message that your mother is a-“

“Reid,” Aaron whisper-shouted.

“Sorry…”

“Watson here,” Penelope greeted. “It’s fine, Sherlock. Not like I haven’t seen you shirtless before anyways.” Hotch looked at Spencer suspiciously and incredulously at the same time.

“Tell you later, Aaron. What’s up, Penny,” Spencer said, hoping to diffuse the awkward situation and the hardness underneath his only remaining garment.

"Something bad just came up. Due to the fact that the police don't know about the two of you, we're going to have to cut off communication for a little while. We'll obviously still watch you, but no more calls."

"I enjoy those though," Reid said, a disappointed look etched onto his face.

"Apologies, lover boy. And, FYI, I don't think you're supposed to do that, sir. The thing with the cameras, I mean."

"I am not letting you watch any more than you have already seen, more than you were supposed to see anyway."

"Speak for yourself,“ Garcia joked. "Rossi and to have some choice words for you after that ordeal. Wanna hear some?"

"Not particularly," Spencer supplied rapidly. 

"Another day. Adieu, my loves. Stay pretty and don't die."

"Bye, Penny," Spencer and Aaron chanted.

Spencer let out a breath he didn't know he was holding in. Everything around him seemed to stop for just a moment. Reid surveyed the room, trying to understand the situation he was in. He was almost naked, still half-hard, and sitting on a bed with a shirtless man he didn't realize he had a crush on. The walls were not bare as he had believed them to be, no. There was a painting of a rose in the corner that was almost always hidden by the closet door. The floor was littered with the two men's belongings, as were the top of the dresser, the bedside table, and the shared desk. 

And then there was the other man panting next to him, not having caught his breath from the make out and near sex session during the thirty second call. Aaron Hotchner was as undressed as he, only donning a pair of boxers in his disheveled state. Spencer's mind seemed to be going haywire. 

He had never truly wanted all of anyone before Hotch. Of course, growing up Reid had had urges, but his hand had always been enough in those cases. The people he fantasized about either weren't real or wouldn't even think there was a possibility that Spencer was anything but aromantic and asexual. Hotch... Hotch was different. Before he had known Aaron dated males add well as females, all odd his teammates appeared to be straight, in a straight relationship, or too invested in their work to do relationships (but still straight). Hotch never assumed anything of him, never asked if there was a lady in his life or anything of the like. They did, of course, talk, but with Aaron's deteriorating marriage and his family's impending doom in the previous period of time, his coworkers’ relationships were the least of his worries. 

Aaron had always cared about him, and only now was Spencer realizing that the entire time, those kind gestures were not those made by only-a-friend.

"I love you," Spencer blurted out. "I think I probably have for a while, maybe since Tobias. I just didn't know what love was other than what I felt for my mother and the team, certainly not romantically. You just... You were always genuine, and there, and I needed that and I never told anyone but you didn't need to be told, you somehow just knew. A few times now, I've been sleeping and dreaming about being in a relationship, and somehow my visions just morph into your mind and your eyes and your illusive and amazing trademark Aaron-Hotchner-smile that only comes out every three millenniums. I know this is fast and I know things will be tough, but I'm happy you want to give us a try. I don't know if I've wanted or needed anything more than I need you." The speech left Hotch without words, but tears of joy dropping from his eyes towards the end of Spencer's spiel told Reid everything he needed to know.

"I love you too, sweetheart. I have since one of our cases ages ago, with the LDSK with a hero complex, but I didn't admit it to myself until a few days ago. Having to kick you to save ourselves broke my heart, and I truly felt terrible about hurting you because I could tell you were in pain and you'd gone through that before. I love you more than anyone I've ever loved, other than my son, though that is a completely different type of love." Spencer laughed at the small joke Hotch made, then waited for the man to continue. 

"I have my own commitments, and so do you, but I've loved you long enough and so much that I'm willing to try as hard as possible to make things work," Hotch finished. Spencer smiled. 

"Me too."


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hi bun bun

Though Aaron was not much of one for expressing any emotion, after he and Spencer admitted their love for each other, he could not stop grinning. The two men were attached at the hip until five PM, which was eight in Virginia and also Jack’s bedtime.  
“Hi, daddy!”

“Hey, buddy. How have things been with your Aunt?”

“Great,” Jack said through the static of the phone. Unfortunately, being so many miles away meant that the calls made to Virginia were most definitely long-distance. “Aunt Jessica made me more dinosaur nuggets today and I got to meet with my friend too! His name is Jack too! Isn’t that cool,” Hotch’s son questioned.  
“Yes, it is very, very cool Jack. I’m very happy you’ve gotten to play with your friends. What did you do with Jack?” The younger Hotchner male sighed contentedly and answered quickly.  
“We went to the park with Jack and his dad. It was fun and we even got ice cream after we left the place. At one point I had ice cream on my face and he wiped it off with his finger and said I looked nice and it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside my tummy. I asked Aunt Jessie about what that meant and she said to ask you. What does it mean?” Hotch laughed quietly for he knew exactly what it meant.  
“I think you might have a crush on the other Jack, Jacks. I felt the same way about your mom when I first met her.” This was true. It had not been love at first sight when Hotch met Haley, but he knew he would fall in love fast from the moment he laid eyes on her.  
Jack sounded nervous as he said, “But Susie from recess says boys that like boys and girls that like girls are bad, and she isn’t the smartest person in the grade but she does get A-B honor roll.”

“Liking another boy or a girl liking another girl is not bad, Jacks. I married your mother and I did love her and I still love her, but I’ve started seeing a man and he and I are still good people.”

“Daddy’s got a boyfriend,” Jack screeched, probably informing the whole street that Hotch was getting some, including Jessica.  
“Yes, I do, and though you are a little young to be dating, being with a guy is okay, sweetheart.” A little was an understatement, but Aaron supposed that two little kids dating wouldn’t get any more serious than maybe kissing on the cheek.  
“If you say so, dad. I bet you’re smarter than Susie, daddy.”  
“I would hope that I am smarter than a five year old girl,” Hotch joked. Jack agreed in a silly voice only a second afterward.  
Hotch suddenly became aware that he and Jack had been talking for twenty minutes, which was twenty minutes of sleep his son would not get that night.  
“Jack, remember the file I sent your Aunt; the Harry Potter one?”

“Yeah! Can I listen to that tonight? I like hearing you read to me.”

“Absolutely, Jacks. You really don’t need to ask me. I think I should go now, as you need to get your sleep. Focus on your math test tomorrow.”  
“Okay,” Hotch’s son said solemnly, quite obviously disappointed that he could not speak to his father for longer. Hotch, who could understand this, told his son that he would call again before school just so that Jack could hear his voice again before his test.  
“Thank you, daddy. I love you.”  
“I love you too, Jacks. Sleep well.”  
“Bye, daddy. I love you too.” Aaron let his son hang up rather than later be accused of hanging up on him, and tossed the phone onto his bed. He had paced for the duration of the call, something Spencer probably had a multitude of statistics proving that was something the majority of the world did.  
Hotch walked downstairs to meet with his new boyfriend and gave him a loving hug. Reid seemed surprised by this but all the same reciprocated the loving gesture. He also inclined his head and pressed a short kiss to Aaron’s lips, arms around him all the while.  
“Jack has a crush,” Aaron whispered. “He’s surprisingly young for his first one. I remember having a crush on one of my friends in second grade, but she was my first crush ever. Jack has a crush and his crush, who is also named Jack, probably likes him too.”

“Actually,” Spencer said, ignoring the context of what his lover said and focusing on the second sentence, “There are many people who have their first boyfriends or girlfriends in Kindergarten, though the majority do seem to be straight ‘couples’.” Spencer said the last word quite sarcastically, telling Aaron that he did not truly believe those relationships counted. Hotch shook his head, not truly caring if what he had said about having a crush at five being surprising was true or not. What he wanted an opinion on from the smartest person in his life was the fact that his son had a crush that liked him back and that they might end up becoming boyfriends.  
“This is serious, Spencer. I love that beautiful brain of yours, baby, but at the moment I would rather hear something about how to help a little boy with his crush.” Spencer smiled and kissed Hotch yet again, this time a little wetter and on the cheek.  
“Of course I can help with that. I actually did research on this when I was fourteen because I had never been in a relationship. One of the articles was titled ‘How to Handle Your Child’s First Crush’ and it basically told parents to accept the relationship and make sure nothing goes too far. If it’s meant to be it’ll last but if it isn’t, their flame will die out fairly soon. Jack will be fine, Aaron,” Spencer reassured his love.

“I hope so,” Hotch murmured wistfully. Spencer pulled Aaron into a tight hug and peppered his face with kisses.  
“He. Will. Be. Fine,” Reid said, separating every word with a kiss on some part of Aaron’s face. “I. Need. You. To. Understand. That.” At the end of his two sentences, he kissed Hotch on the mouth and did it ferociously, not caring whether the team was or wasn’t watching in the slightest. Hotch’s hands found Reid’s waist and pulled the man as close as possible, making it so there was less than an inch of space between the two men. Spencer and Aaron were seemingly enthralled with each other, Hotch moving his hands from his boyfriend’s waistline rather rapidly and allowing them to roam Reid’s body, Reid doing the same. Neither knew what would happen between them after that, but both hoped for the best. They moved to the couch, Spencer letting himself flop down onto his back and allowing Aaron to lay on top of him as they kissed.  
Spencer moaned as the man he was kissing ran his tongue over the roof of Spencer’s mouth. It was tiring, the kissing was, but he and Aaron were taking so much pleasure out of exploring every clothed inch of each other that they truly didn’t care how hard they were breathing or how fast their hearts were beating, it just made the two men feel more connected and intertwined than they already were by their mouths, hands, and minds. Reid lunged up at Hotch and kissed him harder, making Hotch jolt and causing the two of them to tumble off of the couch and onto the cold floor. Spencer giggled while picking himself off of the ground and pulling Hotch up with him.  
With a seductive smirk on his face, Spencer murmured, “Let’s go eat dinner; I’m quite hungry.” Aaron gawked at him but nonetheless followed his boyfriend into the kitchen to help make their meal. This was going to be a long night.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> well fucc me up here's a sMuT warning folks

That night was the best night of Spencer’s entire life. He and Aaron’s dinner was exceptionally good, consisting of linguine pasta, salad, and Chai Tea. Aaron especially enjoyed the salad and told his boyfriend so, who thanked him profusely after Hotch complimented him. While they cleaned up, Reid casually lobbed a piece of leftovers at Hotch, who gasped dramatically.

“Did you seriously just throw that at me, baby?” Reid nodded coyly with a cheeky smile on his face. Hotch wiped the pasta off of his face and threw it back at Reid, who tried to dodge just a little bit too late and got hit by the remnants of what he threw at Hotch. Unfazed by this, Spencer grabbed yet another chunk of the food and threw it at his lover, who did not miss when he dodged and was not splattered in pasta.

“Damn,” Spencer whispered. While Aaron was distracted inspecting the mess that had been made on the floor, Reid attempted to throw another handful of linguine at his boyfriend, but messed up and ended up knocking the entire bowl onto the floor and making pasta fly all over the room. “Damn,” Spencer said, repeating himself accidentally.

“Spencer,” Aaron groaned in annoyance, having only just finished cleaning the muck covering the floor next to him. Grinning sheepishly, Spencer bent down to wipe up the mess he made, making sure to wiggle his ass in front of his lover’s watching eyes. It was quite easy to clean up and they were, in fact, able to salvage the majority of the pasta for later. Hotch refused to help, but could not take his eyes off of Reid while the man cleaned up the chaos he had caused.

“See something you like,” Reid pre-positioned the older profiler, straightening himself up and waggling his eyebrows suggestively to Hotch. Hotch’s mouth went dry and try as he might he could not form any coherent words.

“Oh… Er, um, wha?” Reid giggled and casually tossed the used paper towel into the trash can and slinked over to Aaron. Aaron watched Reid’s every move with dilated pupils full of love. He wrapped a leg around Aaron’s waist and smirked. It was obvious that Reid was trying to elicit a response from Aaron and it was working well. “Reid,” Aaron growled at the man in front of him with words laced with want. Reid smirked again and slapped his thigh, silently asking Aaron to hold him up. The man did so, allowing his lover to wrap his legs and arms around his body. “Bedroom,” Aaron almost suggested, though Reid knew that unless he truly did not want to go to the bedroom it was not a question. He, of course, did and nodded vigorously.

“I love you,” Spencer whispered to the man carrying him. Aaron smiled and continued lightly jogging up the stairs and towards their bedroom. They made it quite quickly, and Spencer was excited. He had never been with anyone before, and not even considered the possibility that the one person he fell in love with would end up loving him back. “I can take it,” Spencer whispered nervously, not sure how to say that he wasn’t ready to top yet.

“Great,” Hotch told him, placing Spencer gently on the bed and pressing a sweet kiss to the younger man’s lips. “I want you to be completely comfortable with what we do.” He threw off his own shirt and began to pull Spencer’s off as well before stopping. “Are you completely positive that you are ready, baby?”

“Yes.”

“Good.” Hotch finished pulling Spencer’s shirt off and moved to his belt. Spencer was already panting and hard and tried to jerk himself against the palm of Hotch’s hand, but when he did this Hotch moved his hand away and shook his head. He yanked Spencer’s jeans off along with his socks and smiled in awe. “You are so gorgeous.” Spencer blushed but kept his eyes focused on Hotch’s hand, which was snaking its way under his boxers and grabbing Spencer’s cock roughly. It was pulled out from under the waistband and Hotch pulled his lover’s underwear off as the man moaned quietly.

“It’s… It’s so, so much better when I don’t have to imagine it’s you.” Hotch raised an eyebrow at Reid’s words but other than that, ignored him; instead trying to focus on the erection in his hands. One of his hands moved slowly to his own belt, the other sliding to the base of Spencer’s cock and massaging one of the man’s balls. Spencer moaned and Hotch smirked, for he was about to feel a lot more than just a hand. His pants dropped along with his underwear as Hotch gripped his own cock as well.

“Move up, Spencer,” Aaron said, nodding to the headboard. Spencer didn’t seem to understand, but he nonetheless sat up against the slab of wood. Aaron moved along with his boyfriend and immediately dipped his head down after settling himself over the man’s cock. Spencer’s dick was covered in pre-come, and not a second later it was covered by Aaron’s hot mouth.

“Oh fUCK,” Spencer screamed, and suddenly Aaron was quite thankful that the bedroom cameras were covered in their dirty socks. Aaron bobbed his head up and down, trying to figure out what would please his boyfriend the most. Licking a stripe of the organ and fondling the untouched ball seemed to do the trick, as it made Spencer scream in pleasure and force his hands into Aaron’s short hair. He almost began fucking his mouth, but as Aaron had never been with a man before and, therefore, had never given a blowjob, he was not completely ready for this and moved his hands to push down his boyfriend’s hips as to not choke himself. Thankfully, Spencer seemed to understand this and avoided jolting again. Aaron ran his tongue over the slit of the cock and moaned himself. Spencer tasted so much better than he assumed he would, and it was something of a plus. "Oh god, oh god Aaron I'm about to," Spencer said just as Hotch pulled off. Spencer immediately looked disappointed when he didn't come. 

"I want you to come when I'm inside you, baby. We have lube and condoms-"

"No condoms," Reid told him. "Not this time; not my first time having sex. You know you're clean anyways, as you were only ever worth one woman, and it isn't like I can get pregnant."

"That would be quite a sight," Hotch gasped rawly, trying to make a joke. "I am clean, but after this, we should try practicing safe sex, baby." Reid affirmed this statement as Hotch grabbed the lube. After squirting some of the lotion-like substance on his palm, Aaron coated three of his fingers in it. "Are you sure, really sure," Aaron rasped.

Spencer looked fairly disgruntled as he answered, "Yes, please."

Hotch had the younger man slide farther down onto the bed rather than also flipping Reid's body over, as he truly wanted to see his lover as they made love. He stroked Spencer's butt and carefully parted the cheeks on the lower part of Spencer's body before pressing a finger into the tight warm hole usually covered by them.

"Ohhh," Spencer moaned loudly, ignoring the slight pain he felt as much as possible, but not able to hold back the wince it caused. "You- Your, your fingers are so... So much bigger than mine."

"You think about me, baby, when you fuck yourself," Hotch questioned, purposefully cursing just to surprise Spencer. "You think about my thick cock tearing up your tight little ass? Have you dreamt about it, maybe?" Spencer was alarmed at Hotch's words but in all actuality, they only made his cock throb even more than it had been before.

"Aaron more, please." Reid thrust against the one finger inside him and groaned when it hit his prostate. Aaron slid the finger halfway out of Spencer's ass and then added a second. Spencer mewled and moved his hands over to his lover's back, dragging the nails across the flesh as he whined. Aaron pushed his fingers in as deep as possible and pulled out halfway yet again, scissoring the space and entering a third. After three times driving his digits into Reid and hitting his prostate, Spencer began to beg. "Please, please Aaron. Need your cock. So big, so thick; please I need more. I love you so much please, please, fill me up." Hotch had never heard Spencer so terrible at forming coherent phrases and appreciated it immensely. He pulled his fingers out completely and gave Spencer the tube of lubricant. 

"Mind helping," Aaron suggested hopefully. He was responded to with an enthusiastic look and mewl followed by the noise of the lube exciting the tube and the magnificent feeling of Spencer's long, delicate fingers around his cock. The feeling was unexplainably phenomenal but as soon as it had started it was over.

"Go," Spencer pleaded. He had never felt like this before and now that he was feeling so turned on he was not going to wait for another second to be with the man he had loved for years. Aaron lined his cock up to Spencer's recently stretched hole and inserted himself slowly. "Yes," his lover hissed in a loud whisper. Aaron pulled out slightly and pushed himself back in multiple times, gradually gathering speed. Spencer moaned and flushed and groaned and brought his hand to his own dick, wanting to jerk off as he was barebacked.

"Let me," Hotch said, moving his left hand over to Spencer's pulsating erection and trying to repeat his mouth's motions with his hand. Evidently, it worked, as Spencer stayed screaming in pleasure only seconds afterwards. 

"Oh gOD AARON- YES," Reid yelled as Hotch began to shove into him while feverishly moving his hand up and down on Reid's cock. That was when Hotch himself broke. 

"Oh god baby. So cloSE, SO GODDAMN CLOSE SPENCER. OH GOD- I LOVE YOU SO MUCH SPENCER!" He could hear Spencer's scream of "AARON" as Hotch rammed into his boyfriend, and when Spencer came, so did he. "SPENCER!" He pulled out limply and panted along with Spencer, who was covered in white come on his chest and ass. Hotch examined his hand and found the same spunk covering it as well.

"I know we should, but I'd rather not shower until morning unless you want to."

"I'm rather tired," Hotch answered. They took off the sheet that had been dirtied with their fluids and crawled into the bed with each other. 

"Men actually are scientifically proven to be tired after sex. When a male orgasms, they release a biochemical called prolactin and that's what causes us to be more tired after sex than women," Spencer informed Hotch, who was already half-asleep. 

"Not that you would know from experience. And I would hardly call that just 'sex.' I call what we just did there making love, sweetheart."

Reid grinned and curled into Hotch's side.

"I should've asked you out a few months after your divorce was finalized, babe. I could've had so much more fun with you."

"We have time, baby. We have so much time."


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> kms i wrote this in like july-sept 2017 and i find it so cringey now but um please read shots gee likes

The next month flew by in a flash. Aaron called Jack nearly night, who continually asked about who Aaron’s “mystery boyfriend” was. When asked this, Aaron replied, “So how are things going with the other Jack, huh?” Jack would hardly tell his father anything afterwards, but every now and then he would tell his father something that made him chuckle and smile at the little boy’s response.

The two men went to Mik’s every Friday, though after Sean and Airi’s murders, the atmosphere there was abysmal compared to the one that they shared the first time. This time, they hardly drank, remained in a corner the entire night, and only engaged in obvious public displays of affection twice, with two short pecks on the lips.

“Take me home,” Reid whined an hour and a half after they arrived. It was not remotely sexual, merely an expression of annoyance after having to stay at a loud and bright bar for half of three hours. “I want to go home and fall asleep watching Star Trek reruns.”

“That is the best suggestion I have heard all night,” Aaron said, referring to the man that had walked over to the two of them and suggested a threesome in the seedy motel nearby. Reid had not so respectfully declined, telling the man that he would never share his boyfriend, especially with a man “like him.” The man then tried to tackle Reid, which ended up in the guy getting arrested for attempted assault.

“I love you,” Reid said as his lover laced their hands together. Hotch smiled at the man slightly shorter than him and as soon as they were out the door dropped Reid’s hand, placed his right on the small of Reid’s back, bent and put the left in the crook of his knees. “What are you doing,” Reid said in a deep voice. His question was answered when his legs were lifted off of the ground. Hotch had picked up Reid bridal style and began carrying him to their car. “I love you,” Reid repeated. Hotch grinned and began lowering his lover once they reached the Subaru. Reid groaned in an upset manner but allowed the man to set him on his feet. The drive back to their house was quiet and gave them time to think, about each other… and their Unsub.

“Spencer,” Hotch started, looking at Spencer for a fraction of a second anterior to the light turned green and he pressed his foot on the gas pedal. Spencer turned his head toward his boyfriend questioningly, unsure as to what Hotch wanted. “We should talk to Penny soon.”

“Penny said that she was excruciatingly busy this week, and I fear for what she will do if we try and interrupt her. Besides, it’s only been a week or so, what changes could have been made?” Aaron rolled his eyes. “If she has stuff she wants to tell us, she’ll call. She may be your best friend but she is my sister.” Aaron repeated his action of exasperation and started speaking again.

“What if we have things we need to tell her,” Aaron told him, his Unit Chief voice activating instantly. Spencer realized he had crossed a line and murmured a fast apology. “It’s fine, Spencer. I just believe it will be helpful for her and us if we chat some more.” Spencer appeared to agree and seconds later he affirmed Aaron’s statement with a nod.

“Maybe we should call her now before she goes to sleep,” Spencer offered as they entered the driveway. Aaron whipped out his phone and dialed Penelope’s number prior to hitting the call button. It rang for about twenty seconds until Garcia frantically answered.

“Sir, Reid, I am so, so sorry I haven’t contacted you. Over this past week, we’d narrowed down our suspect list to thirty-nine different people, eliminating others because of alibis and such. Fortunately, we also found that twenty-four of the people that saw the four of you at the bar were at that bar tonight, making faces at your adorableness.”

“Could you get us a list of those, see if we recognize them,” Spencer questioned.

“Of course, baby boy. Sending you that right… Now.” Both Spencer and Aaron’s phones pinged as she spoke, which made the two of them crack into a smile.

“Got anything else for us at the moment, Penny,” Hotch said, resuming his stoic demeanor as if he had not just been beaming like an idiot.

Garcia replied with, “Rather, unfortunately, I do. There have been two more sets of murders from the Unsub since last Friday. It helped us narrow down suspects though I obviously would have rather had them not die at all. Two stabbed and submerged postmortem gay couples, all over the news since the Unsub’s now killed six times in a week."

"Thanks, Penny. Keep in touch," Spencer told her.

"Love you too, Lover boy. And you too honey. Toodles!" Garcia was strange, but she was right that the both of them did love her immensely. 

They exited their car and Aaron locked it just before unlocking the front door to the home. Spencer persuaded Aaron to get in bed with him, and the two men looked over the list of possible suspects together. Spencer thought it was very funny that the two of them were reviewing a case while in their underwear, though Aaron didn't comment on it. After three minutes of looking at the names over and over again, Spencer finally admitted that he didn't recognize any of them, as Hotch had concluded two minutes before his lover's statement. 

"People are so disgusting. The fact that so many Unsubs torture others when they can't stand to get hurt in the slightest used to baffle me, but now I understand that that's why they enjoy it; their power and control over the other person. The majority of people with enemies have considered murder at some point in time, but these people actually commit homicide and they drag it out," Spencer twittered, evidently unaware that he was ranting about his job to his boss. 

"I think that way too sometimes, but mainly try to focus on the people we help and save. You and I have killed before, but not in the way the criminals we hunt have. Our job is important and I'm glad you do it because the BAU being short a genius would spring up some problems."

Spencer blushed and gave Aaron a kiss on the cheek. 

"I needed that," he said, turning his upper body to the side and switching the lamp off. "Thank you, honey," Reid teased. He could tell Aaron was scowling from the silence, though it was a playful one at worst.

"You're welcome, sweetheart," Hotch said seductively, giving Spencer a short but heated open-mouthed kiss. "And I rather like you calling me honey, though at the same time you were just as bad as Dave right then." Spencer gasped for breath, already out of it after their short kiss, and scowled for real when Aaron turned him onto his side and began spooning him prior to whispering, "Good night."

"Tease," Spencer said just as he fell into a sound sleep, soon to be dreaming of a blonde with bright pink spectacles, and with that, the rest of his team, specifically, a certain sexy Unit Chief SSA Aaron Michael Hotchner.


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> guys i think i might be just adding all the rest of the chapters tonight is that okay with all of you haha idc i'll post them and you'll love it ok baiiiii

Aaron arose from his deep slumber hours later, wrapped so tightly to Spencer that he was worried that if he should try to extract himself, he would awaken the man who hated having to get up early if it was not needed. After releasing himself from Spencer’s remarkably strong sleep-grip, he padded to the kitchen and began making his plain black coffee, as to ensure he would get to some of the boiling energy before the boy in his bedroom tainted it with sugary garbage like cream and caramel. He decided that, subsequent to the moment he finished his coffee, he would call Jessica to speak with her and Jack, rather than just the latter. As the last drops of the dark liquid cascaded from the bottom of the cup into Aaron’s mouth, he carefully walked over to the sink, making sure he didn’t trip on anything out of his sight while his head was inclined.

“Hey Aaron,” Jessica Brooks greeted when Aaron finally called his former sister-in-law.

“Hi, Jessica. How have you been doing?” The woman paused for a moment, contemplating what she should tell the man she was speaking with.

“Well. Jack has been wonderful, especially around the other Jack. Hasn’t been anything more than hand-holding between the two, but Jack is so bashful around his crush. He really is you and Haley’s son, you two were both so crazy about each other.”

“I don’t know if a relationship between kindergarteners and a fairly long-lasting relationship between two adults are truly comparable, but he most definitely is your sister and me’s child. Anyway, I didn’t mean Jack, as I can ask him that myself. I want to know how you are doing, Jess.” Jessica laughed quietly and told Hotch what he wanted to hear.

“Well, Aaron, I am doing fine. There’s a man I’ve been seeing for a while, name’s Walter. I met him at a gathering of people that lost their siblings, and he’s been helping- helping me cope with everything. I’ve also been considering getting a pet, though that will take a while if it ever does happen. And I got promoted,” Jessica stated proudly. Hotch smiled in pride as well and wished he could see her. The last time he had, it was when she had to comfort a sobbing child, and she had to send him away before he started crying harder than he was.

“I’m really happy for you, you know,” Hotch said. “And I really, really love you. I hope you do get that pet, and that things work out with Walter.”

“I love you too, little brother. I hope things work with Walter as well, he’s a sweet man.” Even though she and Hotch had not been legally related since the divorce, she still considered him the younger brother she never had. Hotch didn’t mind, though he was only two years younger than the woman calling him her little brother. He had never had anyone to protect him before, as the only person that could have protected him from his father was the mother he never had, so being the loved younger brother in Jessica’s eyes worked well for him. “Do you want to talk to Jack, love? He has been begging to talk to you ever since he realized that I’m on the phone with you.”

Though Hotch thoroughly enjoyed speaking with his sister, he had secretly been yearning to talk with his son for nearly half of the conversation.

“Yes please,” Hotch pleaded. Wordlessly, Jessica handed the phone to the eager five-year-old boy who started blathering the moment it was given to him.

“Daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy,” Jack repeated multiple times. “Jack- the other Jack- kiss me yesterday! It was so surprising but I really liked it, daddy. Is that good?” Three days after Jack and Hotch had talked last Saturday night, The Other Jack™, whose last name was apparently Sorren, asked his Jack to be other Jack’s boyfriend.

“Kissed, sweetheart, not kiss if you're describing it past tense. And, in a way, it is good. I’m glad you enjoyed your first kiss.”

“Speaking of a kiss,” the younger Hotchner male started. “Who’s your mystery boyfriend, daddy? Do I know him?” After only a week or so of dating, Spencer had agreed that the next time Jack questioned about who Hotch was dating, to answer correctly rather than beating around the bush in order to not have to admit anything.

“Jacks, you remember Spencer, right? The man I’m with out here? He's my boyfriend.”

“You’re getting to work with your boyfriend? Lucky! And I love U’cle Spesser, so of course, I remember him. Is he going to be my new dad, daddy?” Aaron chuckled at how excited his son was at the prospect of Reid being his son’s second father, but this time did beat around the godforsaken bush.

“Possibly. We haven’t been together for long, you know. It’s hard to tell whether that is part of the equation yet, sweetie.”

“Oh,” Jack sighed sadly.

“Don’t get your hopes up or down, sweetheart. It’s too early to tell that, but I do hope and believe that this thing Spencer and I have lasts a long time,” he admitted, knowing that the intel would please the boy. Jack paused before speaking again, and when he did, Hotch heard the telltale creaking noise that only happened when someone was clambering off of the bed upstairs. Sure enough, he heard the bedroom door open and Spencer appeared moments later in all of his shirtless glory. Hotch's mouth went dry and he tried to focus on the fact that he was on the phone with his son rather than how delicious Spencer looked with bedhead.

"Who was that daddy," Jack wondered.

"Hello Jack," Spencer said lightly, an almost sinful grin his only greeting from the man in front of him.

"Is that Spesser? Hi, Spesser!" Spencer giggled and gently latched onto Aaron's side, his warm breath puffing onto the older man's skin. "Spesser," Jack's tone grew serious, "Does daddy make you happy?" Spencer giggled again, this time at Jack's choice of wording, whereas Aaron looked positively mortified. 

"Yes," Spencer said, his lips firming into a casual smirk. "Daddy makes me very, very happy. Do I make you happy, Sir?"

Reid knew what effect that tantalizing tone of his had on Hotch, the profiler deduced in less than a second. Reid was trying to get him riled up; this was confirmed by the sir remark at the end, and the entire exchange altogether. That was why Hotch refused to let it work. 

"Meh," Aaron announced. Spencer looked heartbroken, which almost made Aaron feel bad, but the expression was diminished when his son spoke once more.

"Don't worry, Spesser, daddy's lying. He told  
me how much he loves you and that he hopes you get married and have babies." Spencer blushed and smirked yet again at his superior, knowing that this battle was won.

"Well, males can't procreate, but I could see tiny Hotchners and possible tiny me's in our future," he said, more to Hotch than anyone else. Hotch gave Spencer a light kiss on the cheek but said nothing.

"I really like you, Mr. Spesser. You seem good for my daddy."

"I hope so," Reid said quietly, somehow saying the words in the back of Aaron's mind without knowing it. Reid felt Hotch forcibly loosen the grip he had on the Unit Chief's arm, and before he could protest this action it had been bettered, for Hotch had pulled him into a tight and loving embrace. 

"Auntie Jessica says I need to give the phone back now, daddy. I love you the size of the Earth. You too, Spesser. You make daddy happy, and nobody's really done that 'cept my mommy, so thanks."

Tears formed in Spencer's light brown eyes, and Hotch had to say, "We love you too, buddy," instead of letting Spencer tell Jack himself, for he was nearly having a breakdown over how happy he was. The phone beeped, signifying that the call had been ended, and Reid burst into tears soon after, am an open mouthed smile on his face the entire time. 

"I've never felt nearly as loved as I have this past week. My mom- she wrote me back two days ago, responding to all of my letters. She told me she loves me and some other things about her daily life. Before this week she was the only person that loved me enough to tell me," Spencer said, still chock full of emotion. 

"Then we need to get you some more love in your life." And with that, Hotch led the beautiful sobbing man in his arms over to the coffee machine and let him do his worst to the drink within, loving him the whole time.


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> okay guys 4th to last chapter

Spencer sipped his sugary coffee (or as Aaron had called the drink after he finished concocting it- a garbage monstrosity) with his lover’s arm around him as they watched television. The show they were watching was entitled Gilligan’s Island, and as Spencer had just found out, it was hilarious. Unfortunately, as they were watching the reruns, he found out that there were only three seasons of the comical show, which was highly disappointing.

“I’m surprised you haven’t seen this show before,” Hotch had said during the second episode they were watching. “It’s a classic, and you seem to only enjoy a select few shows, the majority of them being older ones.” Spencer scoffed, and when Aaron gave him a confused look, he elaborated.

“I asked Rossi for a few suggestions as to what I should watch that was good and came out around when he was a kid, and he gave me a list of thirty different shows, none of them being this one, so I just decided to ignore this one when I heard about it. My exact reasoning was, ‘It’s just going to be similar to lost, but a different mode of transportation to the crash and characters.’ I didn’t see the point of watching it when I could watch Doctor Who or Sherlock.”

“Sherlock only has three episodes as of now,” Aaron pointed out. “Though those episodes add up to four and a half hours of TV to watch, I’m almost positive that every Gilligan’s Island episode time added up is more than that amount of time.” Spencer nodded but responded with an answer that defied Aaron’s own.

“Add up Doctor Who and Sherlock and I can assure you that the amount of time it takes to watch both shows in their current entirety will be longer than that of Gilligan’s Island.”

“What if I don’t care and I’d rather kiss you than bicker,” Hotch asked coyly.

“Then I would suggest you show me some sound logic that proves this.” Spencer’s tone was just as coy as Hotch’s, which made him smirk.

“As you wish,” Hotch whispered. He then dove down onto his boyfriend next to him, his right hand cupping the younger profiler’s cheek. He pressed his lips onto Spencer’s hot ones, pushing himself onto Spencer, who involuntarily let a deep moan escape the back of his throat as Hotch advanced on him. Reid licked his way into Hotch’s mouth with his tongue, which slightly surprised the older man on top of him. He had not suspected that Spencer would be so dominant, as he had not given any reason for Hotch to believe so during any of their kisses. Hotch enjoyed this just as much, if not more than he had when Spencer didn’t try and lead their activities, and when he smiled against Spencer’s lips, the other man immediately understood.

“Like this side of me,” Reid rasped.

“Definitely,” Hotch informed him, still trying to kiss the man under him as he spoke. Reid grabbed the arms of the man on top of him and switched their positions so that he was over Hotch rather than under him. Their lips never detached when Reid moved them, and the result was that Reid’s tongue buried itself even farther into Hotch’s mouth.

They ended up making love for a second time on that exact couch, but unfortunately forgot to cover the cameras and, afterwards, Aaron regretted that decision. Spencer got cold feet at one point, telling Aaron that he wasn’t ready to top, and Aaron was absolutely fine with that. Lest they be embarrassed by Garcia, Aaron and Spencer avoided calling her the entire day but ended up getting a call from her in the late evening. She said nothing regarding their scene earlier in the day until the middle of the call.

“You know, you two are pretty hot together,” Penelope said seriously as if she was indulging them in some kind of gossip. Spencer was mortified, and after years of knowing the man, Garcia could assume that that would be his first reaction, and slightly redacted her statement. “I only watched up to when you started taking each other’s clothes off because though your private life is private, some of the couples have been attacked in their homes. I did keep the sound on, but I exited out of the visuals.” Spencer silently thanked everything in the world that had not spited him, mainly Penelope Garcia for not watching him and Hotch.

Aaron voiced his gratitude for Spencer, telling her, “I really appreciate you not watching that, Penny.”

“Of course, sir. Besides, the make out session was enough for me. Anyway, we’ve got another couple murdered, this time with overkill on both males. Specifically, we got some stab marks that spell out ‘NOT FAIR’ in all caps. That, of course, means that in some way the Unsub is jealous of the victims, probably jealous that they are fine with their sexuality. We need you to go out every night that you can flaunt your adorableness and hopefully attract the Unsub to you. Our list of possible suspects has been lowered yet again to the unfortunately high number of seventeen. If any of them see you or look at you remotely creepily, we’ll know.”

Spencer seemed satisfied with this, though was still disappointed that he had to go to a bar again. Aaron was less disgruntled at this prospect but ended up being disappointed as well as he was not really one for public displays of affection, much like Spencer.

“Should we go tonight?”

“No,” Penelope told them. “You obviously don’t seem excited at the idea so take tonight off.   
Also, since you’re going out every night, you probably have something you’re celebrating, so I suggest one of you figures that out. Maybe you’re adopting or getting engaged- maybe you can say it’s your birthday and you’re celebrating all week.” Hotch’s eyebrow raised high up on his forehead at the prospect of getting ‘fake engaged’ to Reid, but he stayed silent.

“Can we go then,” Spencer asked, trying not to sound rude. “I’m getting quite tired.” There was no hint of suggestiveness in his voice, showing that Reid was truly tired.

“I think that’s a good idea, considering we’re going out every day this week.”

As if Garcia knew what Hotch was thinking, she said, “Good luck then. Love you two.”

They told her that they, of course, loved her too, and hung up. Spencer walked sluggishly up the stairs towards their bedroom, which resulted in Aaron deciding to carry him the rest of the way after they reached the top. The both of them crawled into bed next to each other, Spencer wrapping himself around Aaron prior to himself snoring gently in his light sleep state. Hotch watched his lover sleep until he fell asleep himself, though even after he had gone under he dreamed of his beautiful Spencer Reid and just how wonderful the man made him constantly feel.


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> yes i did look up interesting penis facts

That day, Aaron took himself and Spencer to the mall, dropping his boyfriend off at Barnes and Noble after the two men bought Auntie Anne's pretzels to share. While Spencer perused the endless shelves of novels and such that took his fancy, Aaron went to, you guessed it, a jewelers. It was Kay, to be exact, which he found rather satirical as he, his son, and Jessica would make fun of Kay's commercials whenever they noticed them on the television. 

The attendant, quite ironically named Kay J. (and it would've been even funnier if her name ended up being Kay Jewel), showed Aaron some jewelry, unenthused and annoyed that she had to do her job. Maybe it was something different- maybe it was Aaron himself that was making her so disgruntled- but judging by the woman's short dyed black hair, eyeliner, black nails, and other physical characteristics, she wasn't the type of person to enjoy others, especially when they were happy.

"I'm proposing to my boyfriend, so preferably engagement rings," Hotch told Kay, trying to steer her away from the child jewelry section. Kay furrowed her brow and turned, this time towards the section Hotch was hoping to get a good look at. She asked if there were any details he had in mind for what he wanted in a ring, and Aaron requested that it not cost less than two hundred fifty dollars. Thankfully, there were many options, and for a while he just stood there, raking his eyes over every ring in the case. There were some that caught his fancy, but they each had some sort of problem that stopped him from buying it, like the inability to engrave.

It was when he had given up hope, and when he knew that he would have to pick up Spencer soon, that Hotch found the ring. It was perfect for Spencer- a silver ring, covered in tiny purple amethysts on top half of the outside, and in the middle was a bright white diamond. It was flashy, sure, but it wasn't all bling-y and the only important jewels, the amethysts that also happened to be Spencer's second favorite color, were hidden from the public eye because they would all be focused on the diamond. 

He called Kay over and had her take two rings, the one for Spencer and a cheap looking one for himself as to show that they were together, and ring them up. She herself was wearing an engagement ring, but it was something Hotch had not noticed because of the bright bracelet on the girl's wrist. It was a pretty steel bangle with variations of the color pink covering it, not including the center, which was white.

"Congrats," Hotch said, pointing out the ring on her finger.

"Thanks. My fiancée proposed two months ago. Hope yours goes well," she said as she moved her hand out of his sight.

"Much appreciated," Hotch replied, taking the baggie from her outstretched hand. Kay rolled her eyes, quoted the 'come again' mantra, and went into the break room on the back. 

Aaron nearly ran back to Barnes and Noble, but Reid had cozies himself up in a corner with a Starbucks coffee and was flipping through the pages of 'Alice and Wonderland' as if his life depended on it. 

"Mind if I join you," Aaron asked his boyfriend, having already shoved the ruins info his pocket. Spencer grinned and made room on the couch and though it was made for only one person, Reid was the skinniest person he'd ever met, and he asks Reid were able to squash themselves down onto the leather couch, Hotch softly leaning his head down on to Reid's neck. At first, he was appropriate and kind, gently nuzzling his head against his boyfriend's neck every now and then. However, twenty minutes from then, Hotch was full on giving Spencer hickey's all over the boy's pale neck, Reid moaning, again and again, trying to push Hotch away but being unable as he didn't truly want him gone. 

"H-home. Now," Spencer ordered, and Hotch could tell from the man's voice that he was already hard. But, as Hotch decided in that moment, he didn't really wish to leave, which caused him to decide to put matters into his own hands by pulling Spencer over to the family bathroom. Once inside, they ventured into the cleanest corner that also happened to be farthest away from the door, and Hotch pushed Spencer into it. From an outsider's point of view, it looked like Hotch was attacking Spencer, but really, he was just kissing him madly.

Spencer gasped at the sudden force against his mouth and when his lips parted to breathe in any noise that could’ve been emitted was silenced by Hotch’s tongue pressing itself past Spencer’s pink lips. Hotch stroked Spencer's cheek, gradually lowering the fingers until he reached the man's neck massaged the three hickeys he had previously made.

"Beautiful," he mouthed into Spencer’s lips, still feeling an erection pressed against him. It was at this moment that he began fumbling with Reid's belt, cursing silently when he dropped the metal belt buckle, for he then had to break the kiss he was so enjoying to bend his knees and grab the dangling steel item. Since he was already down, Hotch decided it would be better for both of them if he stayed where he was and began unzipping Reid's fly, pulling down his lover's underwear seconds later to reveal the man's cock. It was slick with pre-come and a lot longer than he had remembered from his few times seeing it. 

"You're so big," Hotch told him, accessing what to do and how to do it in a way that would please his lover the most.

"Actually, the average penis size in the United States is five and one twelfth inches, and mine is only about an inch longer than that," Spencer began informing.

"Oh god," Hotch moaned. "Please, pleeease keep talking dirty facts to me, it's even better than regular dirty talk right now."

Spencer discarded the 'regular' remark about dirty talk and continued to speak.

"Did you know," Spencer said as Aaron grabbed his cock, "That, uh, there's a museum in Iceland that is dedicated to penises? And there's an AIDs parade that has penis floats in Japan." Aaron took Spencer's hard-on into his mouth and bobbed up and down on it, clearly enjoying himself. 

"Ohhh, some study in Spain showed that men with good looks have stronger sperm, and I s'pose if," Reid cut off, unable to hold back the low and deep moan that had been threatening to escape for a good while, running his hand through Aaron's hair and latching on to it. "If," Reid continued, “If that is true, then yours has got to be the strongest ever.

"H-half of every male's penis is still inside their body, so everyone's penis is technically double the length they believe it is, and that means that during missionary, that male's penis is in the shape of a boomerang." Aaron licked and sucked and nipped and did everything he could think of to make Spencer come right then and there. Spencer shoved his fist in his mouth and screamed with pleasure, easily coming down Aaron's throat on what was now the second best day of his life. Aaron swallowed and tidied them up, fixing Spencer's pants and his own hair.

Spencer gave Aaron a kiss that explained everything he was feeling, and it encouraged Aaron. This day was just going to get better and better, but not just for him, for the both of them.


	20. Chapter 20!!!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> second to last chapter guys only one more to go and there isn't an epilogue

Hotch and Reid went to a nice restaurant after their quick stint at the mall. Reid ordered the chicken parmesan with water while Hotch requested the filet mignon with pinot noir. However, Hotch only had one glass of the beverage, for he had something to do that he had to remember and not be drunk during. 

It was towards the end of their meal that he decided to pop the imminent question, and he did it in a way that made Spencer's breath catch in his throat.

"Spencer, I have a question for you," Aaron began innocently. Spencer looked up from his pasta and smiled. 

"Ask me whatever you want," he said, though unsure as to where Aaron was going with the conversation. 

"I love you, baby. You love me too, and so does my family and yours. I talked some to your sister Penny last night, she almost suggested for me to do this. If course, she didn't bring up the idea to me for the first time, that was years ago while daydreaming, and most of the dreams were unrealistic because being with you was unrealistic too.

"You are my person, not anyone else in the entire universe; you. You make me blank sometimes, thinking about loving and being loved by you, Spencer. You are my person because I don't believe there's anyone else I could want to marry more than I want to marry you. That's a promise that I will love you for the rest of my life. It's early in our relationship but we've never been too traditional anyways." Spencer knew what Hotch was going to ask prior to the moment he finally got the courage to do so.

"Spencer, my love, will you marry me?" Everyone in the restaurant was staring at the two men, one silent and sitting jittery in a chair, the other panting and shaking on his knees on the dirty floor.

"Of course," Reid said certainly. The majority of the room cheered, with the minority (about three people) looking rather disgusted, one person, in fact, slamming down a stack of bills and leaving their half-eaten meal to sit on the table. Hotch smiled toothily and slid the beautiful piece of jewelry onto his new ‘fiancé’s’ finger, who smiled equally as brightly as him and flagged the waiter with his other hand. The waiter brought the men boxes for their food along with the bill, and Spencer begrudgingly let Aaron pay the high amount listed on the receipt.

“It’s only fair,” Hotch reasoned. “I mean, you did accept my proposal.’  
Spencer scoffed at the apparently weak warrant, and said, “You bought a thousand dollar ring for me, Aaron. I should have paid the dollar check.”

“Too late now,” Hotch said, trying to steer the conversation away from money as they entered their Subaru. “Anyways, we should go out tonight. Mik’s again, to celebrate the engagement.” Spencer agreed immediately, as Hotch knew he would as it was all part of their plan. The phone rang as the men reached a stoplight, and Spencer answered it when he recognized Penelope’s caller ID.

“Hi honeys. That proposal was so cute and phenomenally fast. Nice ring by the way,” Penelope blabbed.

“Hello to you too, Penny,” Spencer said wryly, used to her excitable antics by this point. Hotch smiled slightly and pressed on the gas pedal lighter than he had before, as to ensure he would not go out of control if he decided to listen in on the conversation.  
Garcia described what exactly they would need to do at the bar in vivid detail- “You need to make sure everyone, and I mean everyone at this bar, sees that you are engaged. Literally, shout it from the rooftop while Baby Genius shoves the ring in people’s faces if you want; the more people who see you, the better.”

Hotch nodded, and Reid affirmed that the two of them would do so with a quickly droned, “Yes, Penny.” The men could practically hear Garcia’s smile when she next spoke, albeit the news was not great. They had lowered the suspect list to one hundred ten, but this was only possible because two new murders had commenced since they last spoke, the second of which being the Unsub’s apparent first murdered lesbian couple, of whom had only been killed a day previously.

“Mik’s is definitely this guy’s hunting ground,” Garcia was saying as the two men thought.   
“Every couple now has been to Mik’s almost right before they died. You two need to be careful.” When she said this, coincidentally, both Reid and Hotch happened to get an idea.

“Penny,” Spencer said, “Look for people that have recently attained menial jobs, such as janitors, cashiers, and fast-food workers.”

“And cross reference that with jobs that also allow for a lot of open schedule choice,” Hotch added afterwards. Penelope typed and within seconds she spoke once more.

“Fifty-nine people,” she squealed. “Tonight may be the night we find this guy!” She sounded ecstatic, although Hotch and Reid knew that she didn’t feel that way. She was quite afraid that this may also be the night the boyfriends were taken, no matter how trained they were for this sort of thing.

“Penny, we’ll be fine.” Hotch drove into the driveway and put the car on park, pulling out the keys but not exiting the vehicle.

“Judging by my calculations, if the Unsub decides to kill tonight there is only a forty-six and two tenths percent chance that he will choose us, so the odds are slightly for us.” This, if anything, dampened their spirits farther, and Reid soon regretted speaking.

“Awkward silence is my cue, boys. Keep in touch, stay safe, be careful, and above all, congratulations, and may the odds be ever in your favor.” Spencer hung up and slipped the phone into his pants pocked before motioning for the doors to be unlocked.

They entered the house with what felt like a sort of mundane finality as if this were to be goodbye to the home they had shared for weeks on end. For reasons unknown, Aaron had a nagging feeling that, after the case was over, he might end up buying the house, as he wasn’t exactly pressed for money, and it had many good memories. Spencer seemed to understand this and had to nearly drag Aaron away from his dazed state of gazing at the plain ceiling and up the stairs to their bedroom where they could each change.

The clock struck ten much too early for both mans’ liking, but Aaron and Spencer exited their home for what Spencer was slightly afraid would be their final time mere minutes after this. Though apprehensive, he and Aaron were together, and they couldn’t have been much safer with anyone else at that time.


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> LAST ONE OMG

Aaron and Spencer sat in the corner of a dark room, pinky fingers just barely twined through their rope bindings. They had tried everything, every possible means of escape that they could think of, and as they had done months of FBI training to get to the positions they were in, there were nearly four dozen they could use.

Spencer had taken a look around the room, but unfortunately, Spencer pointed out that the only thing he could see was the color eigengrau, meaning it was too dark to even make out the outline of his hand. By using the other's voice, within seconds they figured out that the two men were placed right next to each other. The Unsub had tied ropes around their wrists, calves, and their thighs, so he was obviously hesitant, yet moderately experienced with kidnapping.

“A few of the people murdered were missing before their deaths, less than half were found at their usual haunts! This, this could be our Unsub.” Though he didn’t want to, Hotch agreed with this fact and began thinking of everyone he’d met at the bar that night that could have been their   
kidnapper…

***

They entered Mik’s quietly and later shuffled their way over to the bar. Spencer got a Shirley Temple and Hotch ended up ordering the same, as neither of them wanted to get drunk during this, for safety reasons. Spencer started feeling the symptoms about halfway through the night, but he somehow forgot his drink was non-alcoholic and ignored that over time his eyes got droopier and droopier. Aaron didn’t notice because, at the same time, he experienced those same symptoms of some sort of drug. Spencer remembered someone coming up to them before he, too tired to even truly function, passed out next to his boyfriend’s drained form.

***

There was no point in doing anything, the mutual silence proved that both men remembered what had happened. Spencer opened his mouth, ready to say his goodbyes to Hotch just in case they didn’t make it out of their own personal hell. Aaron heard the popping noise of Spencer’s mouth opening and hushed him.

“Spencer, we are going to get through this, you are going to be okay, I will be okay, we will both be okay and you do not need to worry about anything. Even if I don’t get out of this, I swear to god, Reid, you will.” Reid gasped and smiled painfully at the words. He wanted to respond, but before he got the chance, a door in the upper left to the room, diagonal from where they were sitting, opened. 

A girl, a woman that Aaron recognized as Kay from the jewelry store, entered the room with a bat. She smiled sickeningly sweetly, but the motion did not reach her cold dead eyes.

“Huh. Only took a few weeks to decide on you two. The first couple that’s recognized me, though,” Kay said. She walked over to the two of them, sizing the men up in their squashed positions.

“Don’t. You dare. Touch him,” Hotch said through gritted teeth, ready to spit on the woman if it would keep her away from Reid. Kay snarled back at him playfully and started towards Reid. This was the moment that Hotch did spit on her. 

She screeched as his saliva ran down the side of her leg and yelled, “That is it, you faggot scum!” Kay smashed the bat down on his knee, most certainly breaking his kneecap and eliciting a scream from Reid. Aaron was in so much pain that he could not even open his mouth, knowing that if he did open it he would vomit. 

Next thing he knew, his thigh binding was ripped apart with a knife specifically so that when Kay dragged him out, ignoring the screams and pleas from Reid to, “Let him go! Let him go you bitch! Take me instead! LET HIM GO,” the pain in his knee would intensify by one thousand percent as the hard surface of the floor pressed into him. After the door slammed and Kay brought the bat back down on him, this time on his arm, he passed out because of the pain.

***

Somehow, miraculously, when Hotch woke up next, he was lying on top of a soft cot in an ambulance.

“Get him saline,” one of the nurses shouted. Reid was sitting sobbing against the interior walls on an ottoman strategically placed under a few cabinets. Penelope was comforting him, and Dave was staring at him as if that would heal Aaron’s injuries.

“S-Spencer,” Hotch groaned, only looking at his boyfriend in the hope that it would help him focus on the lovely person in front of him rather than that his quite broken arm and leg. The younger agent looked up and started sobbing even harder.

“Aaron,” Spencer panted out, “oh thank god! The doctors said that you might not make it. Considering the trauma you’d been through, I agreed with them against my will. I was so worried.” Spencer grabbed Hotch’s hand and took it in his, reveling in the small movement just because he didn’t know if he’d be able to even touch his boyfriend again. Hotch gripped back weakly, which only brought a small smile to Reid’s face. “I am never, ever, letting you go again. Is that understood and good with you?”

“Baby, I will never leave you again. Not even if someone tries to force me. That is if you do the same.”

Spencer had dried the majority of his tears but still had some in his eyes when he said, “I never will.” Penelope smiled from next to him, and even Dave had the ghost of one on his face. 

When they arrived at the hospital, Hotch was ushered away for Spencer, Penelope, and Rossi to watch. Reid was okay with this, knowing that they would help his boyfriend and was immediately comforted by the rest of his team. He hugged Morgan the tightest and cried into his shoulder when Morgan told him that, “I’ve missed you, Pretty Boy.” Jack called even though it was quite late at night, and Spencer told him that they were coming home and that his dad would be okay.

They finally allowed family into the room, which only consisted of Spencer because he was still wearing his lover’s possibly fake proposal ring. Hotch seemed to be asleep when he entered, so he just pulled up a chair and got ready to fall asleep in it. Before he did, he whispered, “You’re okay.”

And he would swear it in court that Aaron murmured, “No. We’re okay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will consider an epilogue if anyone comments that they want it with a good explanation why and/or a suggestion for what it should be. Thank you for reading


	22. TW- AUTHOR'S NOTE

I am not going to be writing an epilogue for this story. Criminal Minds triggers me a lot at this point, not because of the show itself, but because I used to do some triggering things to myself while watching and stuff and I can't really deal with more stress of having to submerge myself in the storyline again.

For some answers-

Spencer would have rejected Aaron's proposal had it been real. They stay together. Spencer proposes three years in, they get married a year later and Spencer adopts Jack.

Any other questions that can be answered rather simply can be asked! It's just submerging myself in Criminal Minds itself that triggers me. While this has to be my least favorite story of the ones I've written, I'm proud of my weird and least favorite child all the same. That being said, I won't write you an epilogue in the comments. Answers that only need to be about a sentence long are appreciated.


End file.
